


Jen 10

by Spawn_of_Say10



Category: Ben 10 Series
Genre: Alien X - Freeform, Aliens, F/F, Gay, Humungousaur, Jen 10, LGBT, Lesbian, Omnitrix, SpawnOfSay10, Transgender, ben 10 - Freeform, queer, scifi, superhero
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-24
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2019-11-04 17:25:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 38,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17902373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spawn_of_Say10/pseuds/Spawn_of_Say10
Summary: Ben Tennyson as been experiencing gender dysphoria in secret for years and he just can't take it anymore.  When a alien too strong for anyone but Alien X to handle shows up, he finally takes it upon himself to use Alien X's reality warping abilities to turn himself into a girl.  Now finally in love with her new body, Jen can come to accept herself, but not the news media who has concerns with a transgender superhero.  Things get even worse when you realize the alien from before was sent by someone more dangerous.





	1. Freshmen

**Author's Note:**

> First chapter of my series. I created a one-shot a while ago and decided to expand on it. I will try and upload two chapters every Saturday, so hopefully you guys stick around for it! I'm a huge Ben 10 fan myself and I'm a trans girl so I'm fairly passionate about this story. I already have this story written up to chapter 10 at the time of this publishing so don't worry too much about delayed chapters for a while.
> 
> This takes place some time after Ben 10: Omniverse in the original continuity. He has all his previous aliens and even a few new ones.
> 
> Also, cause people might bring this up, yes usually in transgender stories it's not best to give the character's chosen name a similar sounding to their deadname. But...the show is called Ben 10, his relatives all have names that end in -en. I just decided to go with it.

            “You sure Bellwood will be fine without me, Rook?” I ask my partner on my cell phone

            “I assure you, I have everything under control.  No major alien discrepancies have been reported in weeks,” he replied.  “Besides, your parents have made it clear that they care about your higher education and I agree.  Despite Earth’s primitive math and science programs (relative to most other planets that is), college is a great place for any Earth inhabitant to gain a better understanding of the world around them that they cannot gain anywhere else.”

            “Thanks, Rook!” my mother, Sandra, yelled from the passenger seat.  “You should listen to your partner more, Ben, he…we…all have your best interests at heart.”

            “Can we even still call him my partner?” I complained.  “I mean, don’t get me wrong, Rook, but if school’s gonna be my main priority then my Plumbers work is going to lessen severely.”

            I can’t help but feel disappointed by that last thought.  The Plumbers, despite what you may be thinking, are an intergalactic police force designed to enforce intergalactic law.  Basically, like Earth cops but in space.  I’ve fought by their side for years defending Earth from various alien threats.  From Incursians, a race of Nazi frogs trying to conquer Earth, to Vilgax, arguably my most dangerous and consistent enemy since I was 10.

“You are still a part time Plumber,” Rook responded to my last statement, “and I am still your partner.  I will keep in touch with all my whereabouts and call you if there’s any emergency requiring your assistance.”

            “Indeed,” I retort as I begrudgingly take a sip from my Mr. Smoothies cup.

            “We’re here!” my father, Carl, exclaims as we roll into the parking lot.

            I hang up and look out the window as we roll up to my dorm.  It’s a 4-story building made of grey bricks that looks like it’s been there for decades.  The name of the dorm is on a rusty piece of metal nailed above the door.  There’s a front porch with two tables and some uncomfortable looking metal chairs.  Bushes are planted around the building with a single tree sitting near the entrance.  Various teenage boys are hanging around the building doing various activities.  Some are tossing a football back and forth.  I see two of them yell at each other with excitement before pounding their chests together.  I suddenly feel very uncomfortable with my surroundings.  I know I don’t fit in almost instantly.

            I climb out of the car and pull my hoodie sleeve past my Omnitrix in hopes that nobody notices the infamous “Ben 10” goes to the same college as them, much less the same dorm.  That clearly doesn’t work.  I open the trunk and one boys screams out, “Woah!  Is that BEN 10!!!!”

            I turned to face them as they all look and stare at me.  I lift my hand to awkwardly wave at them and my sleeve falls down to reveal the watch.  I grab one of my bags and walk up the the front patio but gets interrupted by one of the boys who walks up to me.  He’s taller, more muscularly built.

            “Can you turn into that blue speed alien and help me unload my things?” he asks pointing to his overstuffed car.

            “Uh…could I?  Yes.  Will I?  No,” I retorted as I shoved past him.

            It takes about 20 minutes before all my luggage is in my room.  My roommate hasn’t shown yet and quite frankly I haven’t met him yet.  Unless you know your roommate before attending the University, they basically pair you up at random.  I sit on my bed to see if any of my friends text me.  They haven’t.

            “Well, I think we should start unpacking, don’t you?” Sandra hints.

            “Hmm?  Oh, yeah sure.” I respond.  I sit up just to see Sandra about to open a random bag of mine and I nearly have a heart attack.  “Woah, NO NOT THAT ONE!” I yell as I snatch the bag away from her.

            She looks at me surprised but then smiles and giggles, “Oh, I see!” she responds coyly as she makes a lip-zipping motion with her fingers.

            I toss the bag in my closet, “Shouldn’t we head to orientation or something?”

 

[][][][][][][][][][]

 

            If my dorm was bad, orientation was a nightmare.  Everywhere I went, I felt like everyone was staring at me.  I could practically hear them murmuring among themselves.  Eventually, one got brave and walked up to me.  “Excuse me, are you Ben Tennyson?”

            Soon, a small crowed of college students surrounded me while Sandra and Carl went to talk to a few professors.  I signed a few school items, took a few selfies, and talked to a few of the remaining classmates after the crowed settled down.

            “Can you turn into something?” One girl asked.  I shot her an annoyed look.

            After a few more autographs, a couple social media followings, and phone number hand-outs, I managed to sneak out of the building orientation was in.  I lost track of Sandra and Carl, so I decided to sit in the quad.  It wasn’t deserted, but at least there wasn’t large crowds of people.  I began flipping through my aliens purely out of boredom and even noticed a couple unfamiliar faces in there.  _Mental note: find secluded area in town to try out new alien forms_.

            “Oh my gawd, I think that’s him,” I overheard someone in the distance say.

            I glanced over and saw two girls chatting among themselves.  Both were so pretty that I couldn’t help but feel jealous over.  I guess I stared a tad too long, because they took that as an invitation to greet themselves.

            “Hi, my name is Alexis and this is Hannah,” one of them said.  Alexis was a white woman with shoulder-length blonde hair that was dyed pink at the tips.  She was fairly thin and short.  She wore shorts with a tank top that showed off her belly.

            Hannah was a black woman with her brown hair in an afro. She was about an inch taller then Alexis and a bit thicker too.  She wore leggings and a t-shirt with a picture of three Echo Echo’s running.

            “Hi,” I replied.

            “Hannah and I was wondering if we could, like, take a picture with you?  Cause having an actual superhero is really awesome!”

            “Uh…I’m a little selfie’d out at the moment.  Sorry!” I went back to flipping through he Omnitrix in hopes they would take the hint.

            “Ok, but Hannah’s father is a huge fan of yours so we really wanted to show him a pic of us together.”

            “I’m really tired at the moment so maybe later,” I responded, not looking up from the watch.

            “I mean, it’s just one photo,” Hannah chimed in, not taking the hint.

            “Yes, and it was 20 ‘one photo’s about a second ago.  I really just wanna be left alone right now.”

            “Hannah!” a voice called out from behind us.  I turned to see another girl walking towards us.  She was also black, around my height with dreadlocks going past her shoulders.  She had a pair of blue jeans with flowers on the sides and a purple tank top with black stripes running across it.  “Mom wants you!”

            “No she doesn’t!” Hannah snapped back.

            “Yeah, she does!”

            “Why?”

            “I don’t know!  Just go talk to her!”

            They bickered for about a solid minute before Hannah finally left and dragged Alexis with her.

            “You probably should head somewhere else, unless you want them bothering you again.”

            “Uh…thanks.” I responded.

            “Mhmm,” she turned around and walked away.

 

[][][][][][][][][][]

 

            Finally, the day came to an end.  Hugged my parents goodbye before heading back up to my room.  Once I got there, my roommate clearly made himself at home.  He was sitting on the bed I claimed earlier, now with his sheets sloppily spread on it and a half-eaten pizza in the middle of it.  He had a headset on and was screaming into the mic as he played some sort of video game.  I shut the door and he turned briefly to look at me then back at the screen.  He moved one of his ear pieces off his ear.

            “Oh hey, you my roomie?”

            “Looks like it,” I said as I started grabbing my luggage and sliding it over to the other bed.

            “Ok, cool.  It looked like you didn’t unpack yet so I basically claimed my stuff.  You can have the rest.”

            “K…” I half-heartedly respond.

            “By the way, why do you have a bra?  Is it your girlfriend’s or something?” he snorted.

            “What?” I asked as I looked up.  He pointed to the empty desk he didn’t claim where my secret blue sports bra laid.  I often wear it under my shirt, but I thought that was stuffed in with the rest of my clothes.  “Uh…how did…why… … …it’s probably my cousin’s.  How did you even find it?”

            “I was looking through your stuff to see if you had anything interesting.  Cool Sumo Slammers games, by the way!  We should totally play sometime.”

            “You did what?” I said, suddenly glad that I tossed that one bag in my closet.

            “Hey, man!  Mi casa es your casa!  Besides, you can look at my stuff if you want,” he said as he paused his game and finally got up to properly introduce himself.  “My name’s Ja…” he stopped and stared at me very awkwardly for a few seconds.

            “Really, you just now noticed that I’m…”

            “YOU’RE BEN FREAKING TEN!!!” he exclaimed as he grabbed my hand and shook it violently.  He then took a step back and saluted, “it’s an honor!”

            “Ok, first, I’m a superhero not a soldier.  Second, if this roommate thing’s gonna work, you’re gonna have to get over this…thing really quickly.”

            He nodded, “Oh!”

            “ALSO!” I interrupted, “Never ask me to turn into anything.”

            He slouched in disappointment before turning around and getting back to his game.  I walked over to my closet to see the bag I snatched from Sandra.  I opened it up to see my secret stash of makeup I’ve been experimenting with.  I sighed and tossed it back in before laying down in bed.  I couldn’t help but hear my dormmates from outside.  Loud, roughhousing, running down the halls.  I used to do those types of things in high school but I grew out of it.  Just never liked it, felt obnoxious. I heard some of them slam into my door and then burst out laughing.  I sighed as I started playing with my hair, which I’ve been growing out all summer. _I wish I was a girl._


	2. My Vulpimancer Ate My Homework

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Slept through his first class and slept during his second class, Ben's having a rough first morning. Luckily, he seems to be making a good friend with a his classmate Allison who he even debates coming out to. Unfortunately, a little alien scuffle cuts their time short.

            “Dammit!” I whisper-yelled to myself as I rolled out of bed.  My alarm blinking 8:38, 38 minutes after my first class was supposed to start.  Looks like I missed the first class of the semester.  I decided I might as well get ready for my second class.  History of Western Civilization, a gen ed class.  I looked over at my roommate who was still asleep in his bed.  I took my shirt off and quickly pulled my sports bra over my flat boy chest before tossing on a T-Shirt.  I grabbed my backpack and head out.

            The class was fairly large.  I’d guess that students from freshmen to seniors all were mixed up in this class.  I took a random seat near the far left of the room half-way from the front.

            “Are you following me?” a voice to my right asked.  I looked over to see the girl from yesterday, Hannah’s sister.

            “Oh…no, I just sat down.  Pure coincidence.”

            “Uh huh.” She said, rolling her eyes.

            We sat there for a few seconds before I couldn’t help but ask, “Um…do you know who I am?”

            “Um, duh?  What, you want me to ask for your autograph to, _hero_?” she asked sarcastically.

            “What?  No!  Actually, you’re like the only one here who doesn’t seem to care.  It’s kind of refreshing actually.”  She didn’t say anything.  I glanced a look at my phone to see we had 7 minutes until class starts.  Might as well try to make a friend! “I’m Ben,” I said holding out my hand, “Uh…but you already knew that.”

            She shot me a look but after a second couldn’t help but chuckle and shake my hand, “Allison”.

            Five minutes after introductions, and class officially started.  15 minutes after class started and I was conked out on the table.  Allison had to shake me awake but it was too late to miss the professor’s notice.

            “Mr. Tennyson, I’m sure being a world famous superhero is quite exhausting.  However, I will treat you the same as any other student in this room and sleeping in class does indeed means you will be marked absent for today’s attendance.  Do I make myself clear?”

            I nodded and wiped some drool off my chin.  A few students stood up from their chairs and some were talking among themselves, only now realizing I was in that room with them.

 

[][][][][][][][][][]

 

            “So, you slept through your first class and then slept in your second class?” Allison asked during our lunch time at 11:00 AM.  I was planning on noon, but Allison had a class at the time.

            “Yeah, my college career is taking a rocky start,” I complained.  “Everybody wants to get an autograph from the famous Ben Tennyson, my dorms full of rowdy guys, and I’m sleeping through all my classes!”

            “The hero thing will probably pass,” Allison suggested as she took another bite of her sandwich.  “I mean, the novelty is bound to wear off eventually.”

            “Why are you so unphased?” I ask curiously.

            She paused for a second, “I don’t tend to like white guys with too much power.”

            “Oh,” I said suddenly a tad uncomfortable.  _Not like I want to be a guy._

            “I mean, just look at this country!  How old is America?”

            “Uh…two thousand and nineteen years old?” I shrugged.

            “No,” she said staring at me in disbelief.  “About two hundred forty.  Now, how many women have been president?”

            “Pfft, zero,” I responded.

            “Exactly!  Don’t you think it’s about time we get a woman in the office?  A _black_ woman?” She said crossing her arms.

            “I try and stay out of politics,” I respond.

            “Ha,” she scoffed, “see that’s just an example of your privilege that allows you to ignore the racism and misogyny that is ingrained into our culture.  You could be using your public status to raise awareness of these problems, but what do you do instead?”

            “I mean,” I said shifting in my seat, “I don’t _ignore_ things like racism, but I’m already usually in hot water with the media for being a superhero.  I feel like if I got political, that would only make matters worse.”

             She sighed, “Yeah, I get that.  Still, no offense, but it would be so cool if that watch of yours wound up on somebody else’s wrist.  Somebody in a less privileged state.”

            I almost wanted to tell her that the watch was originally coded to find my Grampa Max’s DNA and I only got it because my DNA matched his.  BUT, I didn’t think that case would help much.

            “I mean, I’m not _that_ privileged.” I said sheepishly.

            She cocked her head and gave me a funny look, “What you mean?”

            My heartbeat suddenly quickened.  I’ve never told anyone my secret and we just met, but should I tell her?  I glance around to make sure nobody was listening.  I leaned forwards only to hear a loud _CRASH!!!_ outside the cafeteria.  Suddenly, students started screaming and running in various directions.  “I got to go!” I said as I ran out.  Allison followed, probably curious to watch the action.

 

[][][][][][][][][][]

 

            I get outside only to see a bunch of Vulpimancers attacking the campus.  Each one a large mammalian alien in various shades of brown, orange, and red.  Some even have a blue coloration.  Their quadrupeds with their forelimbs resembling a bizarre cross between an ape and a cat.  Sharp claws on each foot with quills on their back and long tails.  Each with razor sharp teeth and long tongues, most drooling uncontrollably.  But the most alien aspect about these guys were their eyes, or should I say lack there of.  Their face lacked any resemblance of actual eyes, instead trading them for gill-like slits on the sides of their necks that aid in hearing and smelling so powerful they might as well have a 360 degree vision.

            “Vulpimancers!  What are they doing here?” I ask nobody in particular.  There was at least half a dozen of them, each tearing through different cars and buildings.  One I even noticed had a bloody maw with a bloodied rabbit laid at its feet.

            I dialed up my Omnitrix and dialed in Echo Echo.  _Vulpimancers have super sensitive hearing.  Echo Echo will make rounding them up easy peasy._ I slammed down the core and my skin flashed green.  I grew taller by about half a foot and became thinner.  My pants turned white and expanded around my legs.  The tips of my shoes curled backwards, and my sleeves widened, turning into a cone-like shape that laid loosely on my arms.  My skin changed to a pitch black and my head morphed with two antennae resembling a jester hat extended from my head.  My mouth disappeared from my face and my eyes widened.

            “Woah,” I said surprised looking at my hands and the super loose sleeves.  “This is _not_ Echo Echo.”

            The sound from the transformation grabbed the Vulpimancers’ attention.  They all turned towards me and grouped around me.  _Well, might as well see what this baby can do!_

            I run up towards the Vulpimancers.  One of them swiped at me and I managed to jump up to dodge and jump kicked him in the face before summersaulting over the beast and landing behind it.  The kick barely fazed him as he turned and leaped at me.  I ducked and slipped under him, then jumped over another one that followed through.  One jumped and snapped at me, inches from my face.

            “Woah!” I said flipping a few times to give myself some space.

            “Ok, agile?  Check!  Strong? Not so much.” I make mental notes.

            “Ben!” Someone yell.  I look over to see a random college student waving at me.  “Whose this guy?  I don’t recognize him!”

            “Dude, RUN!” I yell at him.

            “Behind you!” He responds.

            I look just in time to see a big red alien pounce on top of me.  Both his paws on my chest, he reaches down to chomp my head off and I shove his chin up with all my strength,  My face drowning in his drool.  _Ew!_

            “AAAAH!  BEN HELP!!” I can barely look over as two Vulpimancers gain up on the student.

            “No!” I yell as I punch my Vulpimancer in the stomach to little effect.

            I see one of the Vulpimancers leap at the student with the other one close behind.

            “NOOO!” I yell as I desperately reach my free hand out.  It suddenly glows a green color and I see the student duck just in time.  The Vulpimancer slams face first into a lamp post, which falls and slams into the other Vulpimancer’s head.  Knocking both out cold.

            “Woah, ok.” The Vulpimancer above me steps away in frustration, grabs me by the foot, and throws me across the quad.  I stand up, slightly dizzy.  Some of the other Vulpimancers join in as they surround me.  “Let’s try this again.”  I hold my hands out to a nearby lamp post and concentrate.  Nothing happened. _Shit, was that not telekinesis I used?_

            Clearly, the feral aliens weren’t interested in letting me figure this shit out.  Two of them leaped after me.  I dodged the first, but the second one managed to nock me on the ground.  “Aaah!” I cover my face and my hands glow green again.  A third Vulpimancer ran up towards me but the one who knocked me over decided to come back for a payback.  _BAM!_   Both slammed their heads together and landed with a dud.

            _Oh, I get it!_ “I’m a living good luck charm!” I think out loud.  “Like some sort of _JINX!_ ” I announced, the name coming to me easily now that I know what this guy can do.

            I stumble to my feet.  Two more left.  _Ok, let’s do this_.  I ran between them and ran right past them.  The two Vulpimancer is on my tail (metaphorically speaking) in a matter of seconds.  I parkour off a couple buildings, which they follow clumsily.  At one point, I slipped and fell.  In a panic, I try to use my powers and my hands glow green again.  _Please do something!  Please do something!_   I manage to land on a on a stick which sends a rock flying into a nearby dorm room.  I hear a loud crash and a boom box falls out of the broken window and onto some nearby bushes which prevents its breakage.  I run towards it only to have a red Vulpimancer land on my back inches away from the boom box.  It forcibly grab one of my antennae and pulls violently.

            “Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!” I hold onto my antennae with one hand and keep reaching towards the box with my other.  I can barely reach the volume dial.  Thankfully, Vulpimancers can fight over prey and the other orange one shows up and nips at the other alien.  The red alien releases my antenna from his maw and swipes at the orange one, not letting me leave under his weight. I reach with all my might, but I can barely reach it.  Then it hit me, _oh right, duh!_ My hands glow green again and the box tumbles out of the bush.  I twist the dial to max, and the feral beasts immediately fall prey to their sensitive hearing.  They whine, almost like Earth dogs, and curl up while covering their ears.

            I manage to slide out from under the whimpering alien.  My Omnitrix beeps as I revert back to human.  I walk away from the boom box but close enough to keep an eye while I punch Rook’s speed-dial number into my phone and alert him of the situation.  After I hang up, Allison is observing one of the unconscious aliens.

            “Careful, I’m not sure how long they’ll be out.”

            “Sorry, never seen an alien in person before.” She replied. “Is something wrong?” she asked after seeing the look on my face.

            “These Vulpimancers are from the Null Void,” I informed her.  “It’s a pocket dimension that is usually where we dump intergalactic criminals.  Someone must’ve let these things out to track me, but who?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I wanted to make something clear. I'm not black. I'm whiter then white bread. However, I do believe representation is important so I wanted Allison to be black. Now because she's a different ethnicity from me, I apologize if I write her poorly and I am open to hearing criticisms and concerns about her writing. I just felt like I should give other minorities some representation in my work and do my best not to misrepresent them.


	3. Out of the Closet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After some strict policies the school wish to enforce, Ben rants to Allison about his unfair treatment before coming out to her as transgender. With newfound acceptance in her friend, he vents his frustrations to her.

I received an email that night telling me I had a meeting with the administrations at 7:00am tomorrow.  Once I arrived at the room specified on the email, I walked in to see 3 men in suits and a woman at the end of a long table all sitting next to each other.  They were all white and old and seemed fairly serious, although that might’ve just been my anxiety talking.

One was a overweight bald man in a white polo shirt and jeans.  The other man, to his right, appeared to be the youngest there. He had short black hair and wore a black suit and black pants.  The third gentleman had white, neatly cut hair and whore the similar black suit as the second gentleman. The woman had white, curly hair and was quite short and thin.

“Ah, Mr. Tennyson,” the white-haired man said eagerly as he stood up.  The rest of them followed his que. “Please, sit.” He said gesturing to a chair in front of them.

I walked over and awkwardly shook their hands before sitting down.  I leaned forwards and clasped my hands together, nervous on what they were about to say.

“Ok, shall we begin?” he asked.

“Um, what exactly are we doing here, if you don’t mind me asking?” I asked.

“Mr. Tennyson,” he said in a more serious tone, “When we accepted you into our lovely university, we did so well aware of your celebrity status and your work protecting the innocent.  Because of this, we expected to have some degree of attention when coming to this university and we recognize that this isn’t your fault. That being said, your fiasco the other day resulted in a bit of property damage and we’re concerned about the frequency of these fights in the future.”

“Wait, so let me get this straight,” I responded in defense. “You’re aware that fight wasn’t my fault but I’m getting in trouble for it anyways?”

“Nobody said you were in trouble,” the woman chimed in.

“Quite right,” the white-haired man responded.  “We’ve just come to realize that a few ground rules should be implemented if this is going to work.  Mr. McLain here,” he pointed at the bald man, “is head of our campuses construction and will have a very difficult career here if this continues.  Not to mention, Mr. Reed,” the black-haired man, “is in charge of public affairs and it would put a bad reputation on our university if people believe this campus isn’t safe.”

“Isn’t safe?” I got defensive, “With all due respect, sir, with me here this campus is probably the safest university around!  I’m a superhero! If I can save the universe more times than I can count, a university is easy peasy.”

The white-haired man shifted in his seat uncomfortably as if he thought I was going to turn into an alien right now.  “We highly respect what you’ve done to protect our planet.”

“Universe…” I muttered under my breath. _Humans are so egotistical.  Like this planet is the only one that matters._

“But rules are important, and we feel as if we don’t have any in place for a student of your stature.  This will be a work in progress and probably a bit of trial-and-error, but your cooperation would be much appreciated.”  I didn’t respond. “So, we’ve got a few we wanted to share with you. Rule 1: On campus, all aliens must only be used in self-defense and in defense of others.  No recreational use of alien forms will be tolerated. Rule 2: No aliens shall be permitted on university property.”

“Wait, what do you mean by that?” I asked.

“We’re aware that your connection with the – what do they call themselves?  The ‘Plumbers’? – means you have a few friends of the extraterrestrial variety.  Friends who possibly have unique and possibly damaging anatomy and abilities. We’d appreciate these individuals to remain off our campus out of safety concerns of our students.”

Ok, I’m pissed.  “That’s so no fair!  Most aliens are decent people and wouldn’t hurt anyone!  And some aliens even look indistinguishable for people! Hell, some are basically people but with fur or something!  This is basically racial discrimination, you realize.”

The woman raised her hand to signal to me to calm down and spoke in a calm demeanor, “Ben, aliens aren’t people and aren’t protected under racial discrimination laws.  Racism is a terrible thing, nobody here is denying that. Our university has strict anti-discrimination policies in place for a reason. However, while no ethnicity is more or less dangerous than any other ethnicities, that’s not true on a species level.  Some aliens are made of fire, some aliens can throw cars, and others can’t hurt anyone if they tried. We’re just keeping out students safe from the fiery and muscled ones.”

[][][][][][][][][][]

“So now the university is breathing down my neck like I’m a criminal or something!” I ranted to Allison later that day.  We’re walking through some woods near the school to get some privacy. I needed to get some things off my chest and Allison wanted to learn more about the Omnitrix.  Guess she couldn’t pretend to not care forever. “I’m not even allowed to bring Rook onto campus! He’s basically a human with fur!”

“That’s just not right,” she agreed.  “You said aliens live on Earth, right?”

“Yeah, most of them illegally.  Earth has actually become a safe haven for a lot of extraterrestrial immigrants since humans are advanced enough to create cities and societies but weak enough that they can’t hurt most aliens.  Hell, there’s a bunch of aliens in Undertown, right under Bellwood!”

“Are there any around here?”  She asked.

“Probably, but I don’t know any.”

We walked quite some distance in silence.  I looked over at Allison. She was wearing shorts and a tight t-shirt.  I felt envious of her, I’d kill to have her body.

“Hey, can I ask you something?” she asked.

“What’s up?”

“How do you feel about the LGBT community?”

“That’s a random question.” I replied surprised.

“Just answer it.”

“I support the community one hundred percent!”

“Ok cool, cause I’m gay,” she look at me to see my reaction.

“I am too,” I told her.

“You ARE?!” she grinned, “I never would have guessed!  I mean, I’ve seen you date girls before. Of course, that doesn’t mean anything.  I’ve dated guys before, not doing that again. You can have them!”

“I’m not into guys,” I said fidgeting with the Omnitrix nervously.

She stopped walking and squinted at me, “Wait…are you a girl?”

“Yeah…” I said, my heart beat quickening as I said that.

Allison smiled and hugged me tightly, “Oh my god!  Do you parents know?”

“No.”

“Does Rook know?”

“No.”

“Does anybody know?”

“You.”

“Wow!” She held both my hands in hers, “I’m so glad that you trust me enough to tell me this!”

I started walking again and she soon followed.  “Does anyone know about you?” I asked.

“Oh yeah, I’m so out I can’t even find my closet anymore!” she joked.  “By the way, what pronouns should I use and what’s your chosen name?”

“He/him, and Ben,” I responded.  “I’m not ready for everyone to know and I’d feel weird if you called me anything else sense I’m still a boy.”

“No, you aren’t a boy!” She snapped.        

“You know what I mean.”

“You’re not a boy!” She insisted.

“Fine, but I still look like one.”

There was silence for a few minutes, then Allison asked. “Does turning into aliens trigger your dysphoria at all?  I mean, a lot of them have very masculine bodies.”

“Actually, it’s kind of the opposite,” I explained.  “Sure, some of them are pretty masculine, but they’re also not human.  Gender doesn’t really matter to me when you’re a completely different species.  So it’s more of an escape if anything.”

“Huh, makes sense.”

“I got my Omnitrix removed when I was 11,” I started venting.  “That was a bit before I started feeling dysphoric. That was awful.  Then, I was 15 and I was basically forced to put the Omnitrix back on due to an alien invasion at the time.”

“The Highbreed!” She chimed in.

“Yeah.  That really delayed my coming out.  With the Omnitrix, I could escape my body whenever I felt the need to.  So, I didn’t have to come to terms with being transgender. But the Omnitrix was just a band aid to a wound that needed more.  And quite frankly, that band aid is getting old and is starting to fall off.”

“Wait, I thought it was super difficult to remove that thing?” She said confused.

“I’m talking metaphorically!  Like, I still love this thing and it can help when I feel super dysphoric.  But like, it’s just not helping the way it used to. I’m not sure how long I can deal with this anymore,” I said, feeling tears well up on my eyes.

        Allison gave me another big hug and I started balling on her shoulder.  All the self-hatred I’ve been hiding under the jokes and wisecracks. All the body image issues I could escape with a turn of a dial.  All that angst and depression I could vent by punching people society says is okay for me to punch (I.E. criminals). Distractions can only help so much.

        “Hey,” she said holding my shoulders. “I’m not trans, so I don’t know what you’re dealing with.  But, I support you no matter what. And, for the record, I think you’d make a pretty girl. Also, is it just me or is it getting windy?”

        I wiped the tears out of my eyes so I could see better.  I did indeed notice the wind picking up, various leaves where flying everywhere.  Some birds flew off in fright. It wasn’t long before I notice a figure fly right across the woods heading to the direction of campus.  It was fast too, zipping by so quick I couldn’t even identify it. Whatever it is, it didn’t look good.

        “It’s probably the thing that sent those Vulpimancers,” I informed Allison.  “I got to go!”


	4. Trouble Magnet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A powerful alien shows up at Ben's university seeking the Omnitrix. With such a powerful force showing up with no warning, Ben isn't prepared to fight such a powerful foe and underestimates his strength.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sticking to my 2 chapters ever Saturday schedule. Hope you guys are enjoying it so far. Next week, Ben transforms himself into Jen and we get to see how her life is changed forever.
> 
> Feel free to give your feedback in the comments and you're more then welcome to share this on your social media!

        Thanks to XLR8, it didn’t take me too much time to get back to campus.  By the time I arrived there, very little in terms of damage has taken place.  A car flipped over is pretty much all I saw. I reverted back to human and walked over the alien flying 20 feet above the ground with a student in his hands kicking frantically.

        The alien was about 6 feet tall and had smooth orange skin.  He appeared male, having a muscular appearance with thick arms.  He had short black hair that appeared to be slicked back by flying alone.  He wore no clothes, so everything was showing. And I do mean everything.

        “I’m only going to ask you one more time before I begin to lose my patience,” he threatened the boy in a smooth but threatening voice.  “Where would I find Ben Tennyson?”

        “Right here!” I yelled.

        He looked at me, revealing glowing green eyes upon his orange face.  He only had little black dots above each eye where you’d expect eyebrows.  He dropped the boy and floated over to me. The student running in the opposite direction.

        “I take it you’re the one who sent the Vulpimancers?” I asked.

        “Hmm, not me personally but I did request them, yes.” He said with an emotionless face.  “I am here for the Omnitrix and I won’t leave without it."

        “How original,” I muttered. “Look, your mutts already got me in hot water with the school administration.  So, I’d appreciate it if you just turned around and flew back where you came from.”

        The alien responded with dual green laser beams from his eyes that I just barely dodged, leaving my hair singed on the top.

        “Woah, not the hair!  I’ve been growing that out for months!” I dialed up the Omnitrix and slammed down the core.  My skin flashed green and started hardening. It grew harder and harder into living rocks that eventually began cracking, revealing flames beneath the surface.

        Once I became Heatblast, I created a fireball in my hand and threw it at his face.  He didn’t even flinch. Instead, he flew up to me and backhanded me, sending me flying into a nearby car in the parking lot.

        “Ugh,” I said a little dizzy as I got up, “Ok, this guy’s tougher then he looks.”

        I looked up and he was RIGHT THERE!  “The Omnitrix!” he yelled as he reached for my chest.

        “Nope!” I reached up and blasted his face with an intense amount of fire.  My intent was to both burn him and shoot enough energy to fly far enough to get some distance between us.  Well, the second part worked!

        I landed some 50 feet from in and then started barricading him with fireball after fireball.  Nothing working. He started walking towards me almost mockingly so. Unphased by any of my attacks.

        “Ok, I REALLY need to turn up the heat!”  I focused my energy and got WAY hotter. I blasted his legs with flames so hot the asphalt started bubbling.  As I was hoping for, he wasn’t flying at all so he fell right into the pool of tar.

        Before he had time to react, I slammed down the Omnitrix and I began changing again.  My skin softened and turned blue. My feet extended into legs with two toes and a back toe.  My limbs became super thin while wings sprouted from my back and wrapped around me like a cloak.  My eyes bulged and my mouth morphed. I became Big Chill, and I blew over the alien causing the tar to harden and a layer of ice to cover him.  He was stuck in tar from the waste down and ice up to his neck.

        “Hehe, hot on the bottom and cool on the top!” I mocked as I floated a few feet above him.

        “Impressive,” he said half-heartedly.  “But I can get hotter.”

        His skin started glowing underneath the ice.  I quickly became intangible before he busted out of my little prison, ice and asphalt flying in every direction.  He went to punch me, but his fist flew right through me and froze. He growled in frustration before turning and shooting me with lasers again that flew right through my body.  I waved a finger at him tauntingly.

        “Necrofriggian,” he spat as if it was a slur.

        His hands started sparkling with electricity, which can interfere with my intangibility.  I flew backwards only for him to grab me by my foot, shock me, and throw me across lot and into a building.  With a flash, I reverted back to human and fell out of the wall and into the grass around the building. I got up and quickly dialed in another alien.

        “So you like energy, eh?  Careful, that shit can cause some painful Feedback!” I slammed down the core and my skin flashed green once again.  My skin turned white and I shrank to about half my height. A pack formed out of my back and two cords came to attach on the sides of my head.  My mouth grew wider and I felt buzzing all over me as my inner organs buzzed into living sound waves (don’t ask me how that works, because I have no idea).

        “Ok, NOW I get Echo Echo.” I muttered as I ran towards him.  Once I stood in front of him, two clones appeared next to me in a flash.  Then two more. Then two more. Soon, 20 clones surrounded him. He looked around at us, as if debating which to attack first.  I didn’t give him time as we screamed at him. Nearby windows shattered at the extreme sound volume that we exerted. He held his ears in pain.

        “Enough!” He slammed his fist into the ground so hard we all flew backwards.  All of my clones disappeared with a flash and I stood up while reverting back to human.  “What else you got?” he demanded.

        “What else I…Are you toying with me?” I asked, somewhat offended.

        “With the creatures you’ve been using, I thought you were toying with me.” He responded, “You don’t know what I am, do you?  Are these the strongest creatures in that device?”

        “You want strong?” I dialed up one of my muscle aliens.  I slammed down the Omnitrix and grew to about 9 feet tall.  My skin tickled as a thick coat of orange fur sprouted from my arms.  My arms grew thick with muscle and two large blades extended from between my pointer and middle finger.

        "Lemme tell ya something, naked orange alien dude!  Rath is the strongest there is this side of the galaxy!  And nobody can beat Rath except for Rath! And Rath only beats Rath when Rath hates himself.  Which is often, but that’s between Rath and Rath’s counselor. THAT’S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!!!”

        I pounced at the alien and slammed him into the ground.  He slid his feet beneath my belly and kicked me straight into the air.  I was in midair when he flew up, grabbed me by the foot, and slammed me into a nearby car.  He then turned around and threw me into a nearby building. I crashed through the wall and into multiple desks, papers flew everywhere and a few students that was watching from inside the building ran out of the room.

        I growled.  He flew in through the hole in the door only for me to slam my fist into the side of his head.  He fell onto the ground with a thud. He pushed his upper body up with his hand and felt the cut my blade left in his cheek.

        “Hah!  That’s what you get when-“ I got interrupted from a laser beam hitting my face.  Which didn’t do much damage, but it did hurt like a motherfucker.

        “Gah!  Lemme tell ya something!  Nobody, and I mean nobody, interrupts Rath while he’s making a quip!” I slammed my bladed fist into the ground which broke apart under the alien.  He fell into the floor beneath us. Which was the basement. Which was the exercise floor. Oops. A disk shaped weight flew right out of the hole and missed my face by an inch.  Two more followed, missing me just barely. One flew right at my face and I reached out with my blade extended. It sliced through the weight like butter and both halves landed somewhere behind me.

        “Hah, you aim like a fucking storm troop-uh!” a weight slammed right into my stomach, causing me to lurch forward and fall to my knees.  I threw up and reverted back to human, coughing as I went.

        “That was unpleasant,” I need someone stronger.  I slammed down the Omnitrix and grew to 12 feet tall.  My arms grew thick and bulged with muscle. Two arms shot out from underneath my main arms and my face grew longer to compensate for an extra pair of eyes.

        “Enough of this!” the alien shot up and grabbed me by my thick Tetramand throat on his way.


	5. But Hey, Alien X!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This alien is far too powerful, even Atomix struggles to defeat him. Ben must use the power of Alien X to defeat this new foe. While Ben may be the one to turn into Alien X, someone else will come out of the being as we're introduced to Jen 10.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sry this is a day late...Also, I know I usually upload 2 chapters every Saturday, but since this chapter is unusually long I figured it would suffice for a week. Besides, there's 19 chapters in total so one of these weeks will have to result in a single chapter update.

            “This, is the great Ben Tennyson? Ruler of the Omnitrix? Protector of worlds?” The alien ask mockingly as he squeezed tighter around my neck. I could only choke as I held onto his arm with two of my upper arms as my lower arms jabbed him in the stomach as hard as I could to no prevail. “Pathetic!” He declared as he lifted me up over his head and then violently tossed me right through some dorm buildings.

            I crashed through two dorm buildings and landed on the first floor of the science hall. I gasp for air while my skin flashed green and I shrunk back down into my human form. Four Arms isn’t quite my strongest alien, but I thought he’d stand a better chance than the others I’ve used so far.  But he threw me across the campus like I was nothing! What is with this guy?

            I looked around the hall as my fellow college classmates ran in various directions. Some hid, some ran in the opposite direction of the attacking alien. One ran up to me in concerned panic.

            “Ben! Ben! Are you okay?” Allison asked as she shook me out of my daze.

            “I-I’m fine” I said. I took a step away from her and looked up at the alien hovering a few hundred feet above the campus.  “That thing is way more powerful than most of my aliens. I’m not even sure if I can beat him!”

            “Not a single one of your guys can stand up to him?” she asked, fear obvious on her face.  “What about that one alien, Alien X? Isn’t he suppose to be like the strongest thing in the universe?”

            “Eh, not quite the strongest but he is powerful.  Too powerful.” I responded. Alien X. He’s the closest thing to a god that I have in that watch.  With him, I can warp reality to my desire. I even reformed the universe with his power once. But... “He’s too risky.  To do anything, I have to get these two other personalities to agree on an action and they probably won’t. Not after I pissed them off last time.”

            “Do you have anyone else even close to that power?”

            “No,” I responded bluntly. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t have any other crazy powerful aliens!  Allison, run back to your dorm and stay safe! I’m gonna see if I can pull this fight away from campus!”  She nodded in responde and ran off.

            I ran out the front of the building as I dialed into the Omnitrix.  I quickly circled through my aliens before I slammed down on my wrist. My skin flashed green as I started growing rapidly in height. I grew to over 100 feet tall in mere seconds. I felt my muscles and bones shift inside of me, growing denser to support my ginormous size. Plates and fins grew out of my elbows, my head, and my sides. I towered over the entire campus easily, accidentally stepping on some cars and trees in the process. The orange alien was but a fly to me when I become Way Big.

            “Gotcha!” I yelled as I reached out and plucked him out of the air surprisingly easy. I lifted him up to look at him face to face.

            “Hmm…do you now?” He asked. His eyes glowed green and before I had a chance to react two green laser beams shot right at my eye. I instinctively let go of him as I covered my bleeding eye with my right hand. Before I could do anything else, he sped around me faster than I could even see as he slammed into my stomach with full strength. I lunged forwards in pain, but he wasn’t done. He flew around and slammed into my inner knee. My leg buckled, and I fell onto several college buildings, practically destroying the campus. My skin flashed green once again as I began to shrink. It almost felt like falling backwards, except I was on the ground the whole time.

            Once I returned to human I stood up; wincing as a sharp pain ran right through the back of my leg.

            I looked up to see the alien skimming the area. He didn’t know where I went after de-transforming! This is my chance! I ducked behind a remaining wall of a building destroyed by my giant head.

_             Ugh, Way Big is like my heaviest of heavy hitters and he took him down like he was nothing! _ I skimmed through all my aliens, trying to find SOMEBODY that could stand a chance.   _ I was about to try Feedback earlier since this guy seems to like energy, but I’m not sure if I can get close enough to drain him.  I could try to ground him with Gravattack, but I’m not sure if I can toss enough G’s at him. _ I kept skimming aliens, until... _ Wait, this is probably my strongest alien besides Alien X. _

            Suddenly, the wall behind me was lifted up.  I stood back to see him toss it aside like it was nothing.  Behind him, a couple of news copters flew into view, guess they heard a huge Ben 10 fight was going on and decided to take a look. “I’ve grown weary of this.  Give me the Omnitrix, boy, and this unwanted destruction will end.”

            “Hmm, how about...no?” I slammed down the core once again and I felt my body tingle as energy shot through my system.  My skin turned white and metallic and I grew larger and bulkier. My forearms bulged out and turned clear, revealing green nuclear energy beneath the skin.  “My other transformations may have failed to defeat you, vile villain, but Atomix is no light weight!”

            I flew up to him and drew my fist back.  He responded with a similar action. When our fists collided, green energy shot between the two of us, knocking both of us back into different buildings.  Windows all over campus shattered upon impact. Car horns beeped for blocks. The copters shaking in mid-air as they struggle to stay up.

            I flew out of the rubble and saw the alien rubbing his head from the impact, “That actually hurt?”

            “You sound surprised,” I replied

            He flew up at me so fast I could barely register his movement.  He threw a punch, which I barely was able to block. He then kicked me, which I also barely blocked.  I went for a jab in his stomach, he easily blocked that. We continued with the barricade of close combat fighting, DBZ style, until I managed to hit him square in the jaw.  It didn’t hurt him too bad, but it gave me the chance to grab him by the leg and chuck him as hard as I could muster. Which was further than I expected, I couldn’t even see where he ended up.

            I flew in the direction I tossed him.  I looked behind me as I heard the copters following closely.  The distraction prevented me from noticing the alien fly back at me.  His hands clamped together and slammed into my back, making me plummet to the ground.  I landed in a wooded area, leaving a large crater from the impact. My omnitrix beeped with red light flickering from my belt.  My skin flashed red and my body returned back to human form. I ducked behind some trees before he reached the ground.

            “I must say, I’m finally impressed,” the alien spoke loud enough for me to hear.  “For a second, I thought my journey here was in vain.”

_             Stall him _ .  “What do you want with the Omnitrix, anyhow?” I ran behind another tree to prevent him from finding where I was.

            “I would tell you but he gave me a direct order to keep his plans classified,” he responded.

            “He?” I asked.  “Quite with the pronoun games, who are you talking about?”

            “I’m not here to monologue,” he shot a laser at the tree I just left, leaving it in fire.  He flew up to it as I ran off in a separate direction.

            “C’mon, don’t you know how this stuff is suppose to work?  You seek me out, we fight, Omnitrix loses power, you gloat long enough for the watch to recharge, and I kick your butt.  This is pretty standard hero vs villain stuff, ya know!” suddenly, the Omnitrix beeped and flashed green, signaling the recharge.

_             Fine, guess I have no choice. _ I didn’t listen to his response as I held the omnitrix up in front of my face. “Omnitrix. Activate voice command. Code Ben, Ben Tennyson.”

            <Voice command activated> the Omnitrix responded.

            I took a deep breath, “Omnitrix, sequence locked alien. Playlist 3, selection 10.”

            <Sequenced alien selection: Celestialsapien.  Reason behind lock: Reality Warping. Are you sure you wish to sequence this alien?>

            “Confirmed.”

            <Override confirmed.> with a flash of green light, two rows of green holographic nucleotides shot out of the core of the Omnitrix up through the top of the trees.  I bet that was a good shot for the news crew. Both rows lined up and, in a flash, Alien X’s face appeared on the dial. <Celestialsapien DNA activated from the codon stream.>

            I slammed the core down and the cosmic energy surged through my skin. Once my body transformed into the powerful being, my mind inside shrunk from within. It’s a difficult phenomenon to describe. From within my Celestialsapien mind, I floated naked in what appeared to be outer space.

            “Well well well! Welcome back!” An angry masculine voice spoke behind me.

            I turned around to see the two familiar faces staring back at me. Both clearly angry. Which is normal for Bellicus, but Serena?

            “Um…heyo!” I said jokingly as I sheepishly covered my genitals with my right hand and chest with my left arm (this is NOT my favorite part of the experience).

            “I hope you have a good reason to show your face to us again.” Bellicus hissed.

            “Ok, see…there’s this alien…naked orange dude? You might’ve noticed him out there. Anyways, he’s trying to take the Omnitrix and…”

            “Oh! The OMNITRIX again!” Serena exclaimed, “It’s all about that damn device with you, isn’t it, Ben?”

            “I mean, you guys are inside the Omnitrix so I figured you might ca-“ I tried to reason but I was quickly interrupted.

            “We are not in the Omnitrix, you dolt!” Bellicus snapped, “We simply use the Omnitrix as a vessel for our DNA to be stored. You’re not the only Tennyson in the multiverse who uses us, ya know.”

            “I…I’m not? Huh…”

            *BANG!!!*

            I looked up to see the alien’s face in front of what appears to be a mirror into the outside world which I was able to peer through. His arm extended to beneath the mirror, suggesting his hand was probably around my – er – our neck. He smiled, and I saw his other arm reach lower, probably for the chest.

            “By the time your Celestialsapien form can even decide what to do, I’ll have the Omnitrix for myself!” he declared.

            “Guys!!!!” I screamed at the two faces floating beside me.

            “Why should we care if he takes the Omnitrix, hmm?” Serena chimed in. “That would just mean we don’t have to deal with you ever again.”

            I was panicking. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Or should I say, two rocks and a uber powerful alien.

            “WHAT WOULD IT TAKE FOR ME TO USE ALIEN X AGAIN!?!?!?!?” I begged. I would be on my knees if there was any ground to kneel on.

            “I think all three of us knows the answer to THAT question” Bellicus snapped.

            “PLEASE!! TELL ME!!!!!!!” I could practically feel the Omnitrix slowly peeling off our chest.

            “I don’t think so” Serena scoffed.

            I looked at Bellicus, I looked at Serena, I looked back at the alien. Bellicus, Serena, alien, Bellicus, Serena, alien, Bellicus, Serena, alien, BellicusSerenaalien, BellicusSerenaalien, bellicuserenaalien, bellerinlien…

            “OKAY! OKAY!” I screamed, both their faces turned to give me the side eye. “I’m sorry for using Alien X’s abilities as irresponsibly as I did! I’ll never do it again and I’ll ONLY use Alien X’s powers when absolutely necessary!”

            Both faces were staring down at me, then they looked at each other. I’m pretty sure if they had shoulders, they’d be shrugging.

            “Fine!” they both said at once.

            I turned to the mirror with a huge grin on my face. I reached out my right hand and grabbed the air in front of me. I watched in delight as Alien X’s right arm moved in tandem to grasp the alien’s  neck. His face immediately turned to fear, and I pulled my left fist back behind me and SLAMMED it right into his face. I watched as he flew far into the sky, barely missing the copters. In a blink of an eye, I disappeared from where I was standing and appeared outside Earth’s atmosphere. I closed both hands together and raised them over my head…BOOM! I slammed them right into his flying body, causing him to soar down towards the earth’s surface. I chased after him, landing blow after blow after blow.

            I then stopped a few hundred feet from the ground and watched as he landed to the ground with a loud thud.  The copters flew around me a few dozen meters away. I stood there motionless for a second and caught my reflection in one of their camera lens despite how far they were.  Only, I didn’t see Alien X...I saw me. My naked body, floating within Alien X’s mind. The body that has brought me so much discomfort over the years. It’s not an ugly body, for a guy that is, but it just wasn’t...me.

            I looked behind me in Alien X’s head to see Bellicus and Serena bickering back and forth for the millionth time. Clearly distracted, not at all focused on me. I looked down at my body. Not my reflection, at my naked, floating body.  _ You currently hold the power of a god. You could do anything right now, even make skin you’d be comfortable living in. But, would they see this as another unnecessary use of their power? _ I looked back at the two faces.

            “I say we create intergalactic world piece,” Serena cooed.

            “Where’s the fun in that? I want war! I want destruction! Chaos makes this world interesting.” Bellicus scoffed.

            I took a deep breath and focused, completely forgetting about the copters around me (probably confused by my motionless state). I focused on the current state of reality. I then focused on how I wish reality to change. Then, I felt it happening. My entire body tingled as every cell in my body replaced millions of Y chromosomes for a second X chromosome. My skin grew softer and all my body hair disappeared as if I shaved it off this morning. My back and shoulders tickled as the hair on my head grew longer and longer. So long, it covered my pecs, which began growing bigger and softer until they could probably fill a B cup. My nipples tingled as they became more sensitive. I felt my bones shifting inside of me as they changed shape. My muscle mass lessened and I could feel myself becoming slightly weaker than before. My shoulders became less broad and my hips widened. Genitals was easily the oddest sensation as they were absorbed into the body and left a vagina in their place.

            I snaked my fingers in between the hairs on my head pulled them away to see the beautifully long brown hair. I placed my hands on my newly developed breasts and slid them down my curvy body down to my vagina.  I looked back at my reflection, so enthralled in the moment that I forget where the reflection is coming from. I loved my new form and everything about it. It was my ideal body. I felt euphoric and began to laugh from the intense happiness I felt.

            “GASP! BEN TENNYSON!!!”

            I turned around to see Serena staring at me in shock, Bellicus in anger.

            “You pervert!” Serena screamed in astonishment.

            “NONONONONO!!!!” I protested. I couldn’t help but cup my mouth with my hand, surprised by the new voice that slipped between my lips.

            “Wow. I just…wow.” Bellicus responded.

            “I can explain!” I attempted once more.

            “Benjamin, how dare you degrade out abilities to that of a…of a…of a…fetish dream!” Serena stammered.

            “It’s not a fetish! I swear!”

            “Ah yeah?” Bellicus huffed, “then what do you call it?”

            “GENDER DYSPHORIA!”

            They both stopped and stared at me. Probably in an attempt to detect any lie, bluff, or joke in my speech.

            “I see.” Serena said at last. “I thought humans were supposed to be a primitive species with primitive understanding of gender identities.”

            “I don’t know if I buy this,” Bellicus scoffed. “If this isn’t a fetish trip, I assume you’d be happy staying in that body for the rest of your life, hmm?” He said with a grin, attempting to call out any bluff.

            I nodded and smiled brightly.

            Bellicus looked at me, surprised I’m not calling off any bluff, “Very well. If you’re lying then you’d have to be forced to remain in that body for the rest of your life. If you’re telling the truth, that shouldn’t be an issue now should it?”

            “Not at all!” I responded.

            “However,” he continued. “Was this - how did you put it - ‘absolutely necessary’?”

            “I mean,” I started.

            “That is true,” Serena chimed in.  “This does not seem like a practical use of our powers.”

            “But I-”

            “Indeed,” Bellicus scoffed. “I propose that Ben Tennyson be permanently locked out of his Celestialsapien form.”

            “Wait, PERMANENTLY?”

            “Oh, that seems a bit harsh,” Serena thought out loud.

            I sighed in relief.

            “I propose,” she continued, “That if Ben uses us ever again for selfish reasons, the Alien X transformation will then be permanently locked.”

            “Seconded,” Bellicus responded.

            I bright flash of green blinded me followed by powerful winds so strong I could barely open my eyes.  Once I managed to do so, I realized I was falling, and fast. I freaked out and slammed down my Omnitrix just in time to transform into Diamondhead.  His - no -  _ her _ crystalline body durable enough to survive the impact.  I reverted back to human but still felt too much wind around me.  I looked up, struggling to keep my long hair out of my face.  _ Shit! I completely forgot about the news crew! _ _ I need to get out of here! _

            I dialed up the Omnitrix and looked for a specific alien.  I slammed down the core and shrank by about a foot. Yellow fur sprouted all over my body and two tails extended out of my behind.  I looked like a little yellow lemur with two tails. This is a new guy, I call him - ugh -  _ her _ Portailer.  I felt sparks form between the tips of my tail and shot out in front of me.  Hole in space formed and I saw Allison and her roommate on their beds, watching me on the news.  Both of them looked at me in surprise as I jumped through the portal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm gonna be honest here, Portailer is a rip off of a fan made alien I found a while ago. He's a little yellow lemur with two tails. You can probably find the design somewhere online if you look around enough. But the idea of a yellow lemur that can teleport was too cool to pass up.


	6. And Then There Was Jen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that Jen is officially out as a transgender superhero, the media has very polarizing views on this development.

            I rolled into their room and fell backwards onto the side of one of Allison’s bed before the portal closed behind me.  My Omnitrix beeped from the back of my right hand and I reverted back to human, my long hair falling dramatically around my head.  I sat up and realized I was breathing heavier than normal.

            “Ben!” she jumped onto the ground and embraced me in a tight hug.  I hugged her back and couldn’t help but laugh from the overwhelming excitement I was feeling.  She let go and leaned back, “Are you okay?”

            “I am now,” I responded.

            We both stood up with me still giggling from all the emotions.  Allison’s dorm was about the same size as my own. Her bed jutted out of the middle of the wall with her roommate’s stacked on top of her’s and a desk forming an “L” shape.  On the other side was stacked 2 dressers and a television on top with the news muted.

            “Mind if I shower to calm down?” I asked.

            I borrowed one of Allison’s towels and ran into the girl’s bathroom.  I turned the hot water on and let it run over me while I stared down at my new body.  I felt butterflies in my stomach I was so happy. I’ve never experienced this level of euphoria just from looking at my naked body before.  It wasn’t anything sexual or fetishy either. I just finally felt comfortable in my own skin.

            I leaned onto the side of the stall and took a deep breathe out.  I couldn’t help but think about the news copters recording everything.   _I wonder if people saw me transition?  How will people react? How will Sandra and Carl react?  Grandpa Max? Gwen?_ I played with my wet hair anxiously as all the possibilities started rolling through my head.   _My parents are pretty progressive, they’d accept a transgender child, right?  And Grandpa Max supports me no matter what. But will Earth be accepting of a transgender superhero?  How about other planets? I’m not even sure how common gender dysphoria on other planets._

            That freaked me out.  I started imagining the worst case scenarios running through my head.  Getting fired from the Plumbers, Azmuth reclaiming the Omnitrix, aliens no longer taking me seriously.  What if this was all a big mistake? _No!  C’mon, you’re Ben freaking 10!  You saved the universe dozens of times!  You defeated Vilgax, you stopped the High Breed, you single handedly kick started the big bang!_

            I took a deep breathe, “No,” I said out loud to myself.  “I’m not Ben 10. I’m Jennifer Tennyson! Jen 10! I’m better than Ben 10!  I’m stronger, more confident in myself, and finally mentally healthy! Yeah!   **Come at me universe, cause Jen 10 is ready for you!** ”

            “So, it’s Jen now?” Allison asked from outside the shower stalls.  “I take it you’re using she/her pronouns now, right?”

            “How much of that did you hear?”

            “Enough,” she replied. “You should wrap up that shower though, I think you might want to see what the media is saying about you.

 

[][][][][][][][][][]

 

            A few minutes later, Allison, Courtney (her roommate...Asian girl, black pixie cut hair, between Allison and my height), and I was sitting on Courtney’s bed watching the news.  The camera panned over Alien X as she hovered in mid air several hundred feet above the ground. A news anchor spoke from off-screen, “Teenage superhero, Ben Tennyson, transformed into the infamous Alien X and defeated an unknown enemy 20 minutes ago and has been hovering in mid air since.  We don’t know what he is currently doing.”

_20 minutes?  Didn’t feel that long…_

            Suddenly, Alien X flashed green and you could see me fall from where he used to be.  The camera zoomed out as I fell a good 30 seconds before flashing green once again. The landing kicked up so much dust that Diamondhead wasn’t even caught on camera.  Once the dust cleared, the camera zoomed in on me with the wind blowing my hair all over my face as if it was attacking me. “Wait, is that?” the news anchor asked in astonishment.  I transformed into Portailer and jumped through the portal before the video faded out, showing two white men and a woman behind a long bar.

            “That footage was taken less than an hour ago,” the man in the middle spoke directly to the audience.  “Now, as we all know, Alien X is an alien that Ben Tennyson does not use very often. Not much is known about this form but everyone is talking about his use of the alien to turn himself into what appears to be a girl.  Thomas, Lorri, what are your thoughts?”

            “Well, Joe,” the woman responded.  “This is definitely a huge surprise for everybody, I’d imagine.  First, we learn that aliens are real. Then, we learn that a bunch of them is this teen superhero.  And finally, we learn that this superhero is transgender! What are the odds?

            “Can we really call him - _her_? - “transgender”, Lorri?” the man to the right asked.  “I mean, don’t misinterpret my words, I support the trans community one hundred percent!  It is a great deal for anybody to have to go through with coming out to friends and family, spending thousands of dollars on hormones and surgeries...it’s just insane the amount of bravery these people have to go through.  But Ben Tennyson? He just snapped his fingers and va la! He’s a woman! Actual trans people go through so much hardship, what does Ben have to go through?”

            “How about saving the entire universe while having dysphoria making everything a thousand times harder!” I yelled at the screen.  “How about that for ‘hardships’!”

            “Thomas,” the man named Joe responded, “First of all, trans women are women so it’s ‘her’.  Secondly, one man’s pain - and I’m using ‘man’ as in ‘person’ here - does not negate another man’s pain.  Does her not using the traditional methods excuse her from the community?”

            “All I’m saying,” Thomas said in defence, “is that the transgender experience is a very - “

            I clicked the remote, changing the channel.  “That guy was getting on my nerves.”

            The television switched over to another news network.  This time, a white woman and a black man is talking back and forth with each other.

            “-is a hero to the LGBT community,” the woman was talking as we switched channels mid-sentence.  “I mean, imagine the difficulties of being a teenager and a superhero while dealing with all that gender dysphoria!  I just can’t even begin to fully grasp the struggles that comes with that.”

            “I agree,” the man replied, “and I think this represents something even greater!  I mean, we’ve had heroes in the past with people like Captain Nemesis, but Tennyson might just be the first _actual_ superhero that the world has ever seen.  And in addition, she’s transgender! This will make MAJOR breakthroughs for the LGBT community and their fight for acceptance.  Imagine being a little trans girl and seeing the legendary Ben 10 turn himself into a beautiful young woman!”

            That made me smile.  I definitely could’ve used a version of me when I was younger.  I almost came out when I was 14 but was too scared. Imagine all the young trans people I inspired!

            I switched the channel again to see what else was on.  Big orange letters reading “HARANGUE NATION” spread over the television screen before a green humanoid came into focus.  He wore glasses and a business suit and had one eye in the middle of his green face and had tentacles for arms. He used to be completely human, until I used Jury Rigg to mess with his DNA.  So yeah, this guy hates my guts.

            “Ben Tennyson, threat or menace!” Will Harangue began.  “Today is a special day for our Ben 10 watch, ladies and gentlemen.  For today is the day where our ‘hero’ does the unspeakable. Now, I had trouble believing it when I first saw it too, believe you me, but here we have footage of Ben selfishly using his alien forms to turn himself into a woman.  Now, folks at home, whenever the word ‘hero’ is mentioned, what comes to mind? A role model? Someone to look up to? A morally outstanding citizen? Well, guess they don’t make them like they used to. Is this type of perversion really the type of thing the kids at home should be seeing?  He’s probably at home doing unspeakable acts in his newfound ‘womanhood’ as we speak!”

_Why does everyone have to turn this into a sexual thing?  It really isn’t!_

            “And I do have ‘womanhood’ in air quotes, ladies and gentleman, because of course Ben Tennyson was born male and will die male.  I don’t care what type of alien magic Tennyson used here! You can not change your gender, which there are two of, might I add!”

            “I used Alien X to transform me on a cellular level,” I said frustrated.  “I have XX chromosomes. I have a uterus. I will get periods and I can get pregnant.  I have the equivalent of a cis woman’s body, the most precise gender transitioning that no human can achieve with our current level of medical science yet, and I’m _still_ being questioned!  This isn’t about science, this is about hate.”

            Allison wrapped her arm around my shoulder as we continued to watch,

            “Oh, and we thought Bruce Jenner was a hero when he went around calling himself ‘Caitlyn’, but now the _actual_ quote-unquote ‘hero’ is breaking our moral bounds and rebelling against the scientific facts of reality in his quest to infiltrate women’s restrooms and do god knows what else!”

            “I’m done with this,” I yelled as I jumped from the bed and walked out of the dorm.

            “Wait!” Allison followed.  “Don’t listen to them. You’re beautiful and squid face is just old and hateful.”

            I kept walking.  I burst out the door only to be greeted by a small group of people with the blue, pink, and white trans flag waving in the air.  They all freak out as I left the building. A young Hispanic woman approached me.

            “Hi, my name is Elena!  I’m the co-leader of our campuses GSA, that’s Gay Straight Alliance, and a few of us wanted to congratulate you on your coming out!”

            “Uh, thanks.” I said awkwardly.

            Allison soon walked up next to me, “Hi Elena.” she said.

            Elena’s eyes widened, “Allison!  You know her? Well, I mean... _duh_ you know her.  But like, you _know her_ know her?”

            “Yeah, Jen and I are friends,” she said, wrapping her arm around mine.

            “Perfect!” Elena said, “well Allison’s part of our GSA so I’m sure she told you all about us!  If you ever need to talk to anybody, you can reach us on facebook. We meet every Friday night, so come join us?”

            “Oh, she will.” Allison responded.

            “I will?” I asked.

            “Of course you will,” she looked at me.  “Remember how we talked earlier about using your privilege to help others?  Superhero privilege is definitely up there and you can totally help our community!”

            I shifted uncomfortably, not sure how to respond to this.

            “Tennyson!” I looked over to see the director of the university walking towards us.  His white hair in a mess as if he’s been trying to pull it out of his skull. “We need to discuss some important matters.”


	7. We Need To Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not only does Jen have to deal with the public knowing she's trans, Jen has to face her closest friends and family in hopes of seeking their acceptance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry these past two chapters are somewhat short. I'll be trying to make future updates longer in length.

            Ok, good news?  I’m not expelled!  In fact, the administration is too scared to expel me despite the property damage my last battle had.  They’re worried it might be seen as a transphobic attack and they want to protect their public image. More good news?  They’re making plans to move me into the girl’s dorms as quickly as possible and changing the name and gender on my school records.  The bad news? Actually, that’s just it. So far, there are no bad news. Other than every conservative news network attacking my public image and having every liberal news network praise me like some sort of queer goddess.  Which, relatively speaking, what’s changed? People hated me before they knew I was a girl, now they just have different excuses.

            I walk down the front of my campus lost in thought before somebody honks behind me.  I turn around to see the Proto-TRUK pulling up behind me with Rook in the driver seat.  The Proto-TRUK is Rook’s ship but it’s disguised as an Earth truck with “Max’s Plumbing” written on the side and a cartoon of my grandpa.  Rook called earlier saying he was driving me home cause we “Need to talk.” as he put it.

            I jumped into the passenger seat, “Rook!  I wasn’t expecting to see you so soon once school started.  Pleasant surprise, eh?”

            “Perhaps,” he said unconvincingly.

            We pulled away from the university and onto the main road.  It was quite for a few minutes before I finally broke the silence, “So what?  No greetings?”

            He remained silent for a few seconds before answering, “Ben…”

            "It’s Jen now,” I interrupted.

            He looked at me as if trying to detect some sort of bluff in my voice, “ _ Jen _ , there has only been one question on my mind since I first witnessed that news footage of your transformation into this new form.  That question being, ‘why???’”

            “Why, what?”

            “Why did you do it?”

            “I don’t under-”

            “What reason did you have for using the powers of Alien X to transform yourself into that of a female human?” he demanded.

            My heart sank in my chest.   _ Not Rook!  C’mon, anybody but Rook! _

            “Rook, I’ve felt this way for a very long time - “

            “And yet you have not disclosed this information to me or any other plumber.  Gender confusion is not diagnosed in any of your files. It serves no combatant purposes.  In fact, it may hinder your abilities in the field -”

            “Girls can fight!” I interrupted.  “Gwen has literally saved both our butts on multiple occasions!”

            “I am not saying females are incapable fighters,” Rook responded,  “ Both Gwendolyn and my sister is evident of that. What I am saying is you are not a female and becoming one, fighting in an unfamiliar anatomy, may affect your skills in battle.”

            “And live the rest of my life struggling with gender dysphoria?  I don’t think so! I hated being a boy!”

            “But you are a boy, are you not?”

            I took a deep breathe.  I couldn’t help but think of Rook’s father.  He was a traditionalist and didn’t appreciate Rook and his sister joining the Plumbers.  Maybe I can find some common ground here.

            “Ok, Rook.  You were raised by a very conservative father, I get that, but think of it this way!  What did your father want you to spend your life doing?”

            “Working on the family farm harvesting Amber Ogia,” he answered.

            “Right, and what did you want to do instead?”

            “Become a Plumber and help protect people,” he replied.

            “And what did you do?”

            “I did the later, but I do not see-”

            “So,” I interrupted, “relate that back to me!  I was raised a boy but I didn’t want to be a boy.  So I followed my heart and became a girl!”

            “That is a false equivalence,” Rook responded.  “I broke my family’s traditions to help people, you seem to be doing this for some sort of thrill.  As per usual.”

            I glared at him with tears swelling in my eyes, “This isn’t a cheap thrill!  This is me trying to live my life the way I want to live it! I’d hope my partner, of all people, would be able to see that!”

            “Ben, I-”

            “It’s JEN!” I slammed the Proto-TRUK in front of me and the vehicle became silent.

 

[][][][][][][][][][]

 

            Once we got to my house, I left the vehicle without saying a word to Rook.  I walked in and everybody went from talking to being silent. Grandpa Max was standing in the back of the room with Gwen in a chair and Kevin laying back on the couch.  Max smiled and walked across the room to give me a big hug. I hugged him back.

            “It’s okay, I love you,” he said calmly.  I had to hold myself back from crying into his Hawaiian shirt.

            “Yeah, we all love and support you no matter what,” I heard Gwen from behind Max.

            I broke off from the Hug and smiled at them.

            “So Ben wanted to be a girl all this time?” Kevin interrupted the emotional acceptance with a burst of laughter.  “That explains so much!”

            “It’s ‘Jen’,” Rook muttered as he walked in through the front door.

            “This isn’t funny, Kevin!” Gwen scolded him.

            “Ah, c’mon!  It’s kinda funny!” He replied standing up, “In all seriousness, dude, it’s cool with me!”

            Strangely enough, I kinda appreciated Kevin’s insensitive yet accepting attitude.

            “You’re still you after all,” he said as he wrapped his right arm around my neck but then suddenly paused and let go.

            “What was that?” I asked.

            “I mean, you’re still you, but like a girl now.  And that just feels weird.” he said shrugging. Now I wasn’t appreciating the attitude.

            “Well, now that all this emotional support has been established,” I said shooting a look at Rook.  “What are we gonna do about people learning about the real me?”

            “Yeah, everybody’s calling Ben a - oh, sorry - Jen a perverted freak if nature.  As if the Omnitrix didn’t already do that to him,” Kevin joked.

            “Well, Jen’s status as public superhero has been important for human-alien relationships,” Max said quizzically.  “Her transition should be publicly addressed in a controlled setting where Jen is in full control over what the public hears.  That way, she can control her public perception as best as possible.”

            “Why do I need to address anything?” I ask.  “Can’t people just accept that I’m a girl now?”

            “Well, it’s not quite that easy, sport.” Max replied.

_             Isn’t “sport” a boys thing? _

            “Unfortunately, a lot of people have a few concerns with you’re trans status.  Especially as a celebrity and as a superhero; which might make things even worse.”

            “I’ve already heard a few nasty rumors on social media,” Gwen chimed in.  “We really need to get control of the situation before it’s too late.”

            “I have a few connections with some news networks and I might be able to spot you an interview with people we can trust,” Mac continued.

            “Wait, have you always had these connections?” Kevin questioned, “and you’re only now bringing them up?”

            Max rubbed the back of his neck, “Well, one connection.  But I don’t like making business with him so I only talk to him under extreme circumstances.”

            “Like now,” I replied.  “Get me that interview, maybe I can convince people I’m the same superhero they all know and love.

            Max nodded and walked into the other room.  Rook followed him, leaving me with Kevin and Gwen.  I couldn’t help but notice Kevin looking me up and down as if studying my body.  I shifted uncomfortable at the thought.

            “Here,” Gwen handed me a small handful of hair ties.  “Keep a few of these on you at all times. Take it from me, fighting aliens is way easier with your hair out of your face.”

            “Thanks,” I replied as I put a few of them on my wrist and then used one to put my long hair into a ponytail.

            “And Ben, I’m always here if you need any help.  Like, with new clothes.” she said jokingly.

            I cocked my head at her.

            “What?” She asked, then she grimaced.  “Ugh! Sorry, Jen!”

            “Hey, at least you’re trying.”


	8. Call Me Jennifer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jen gets an interview on The LN Show with the host, Lance Newton. Things seem to go well at first with Jen discussing her transition and such. Things starts going south during the audience Q&A portion when a few concerned transphobes have some questions for Jen. Things goes from bad to worse when a long time enemy crashes the interview.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a very long chapter so I'm debating over posting two chapters this week or not. Lemme know if you guys want the second one and I might post it some time tomorrow.

            So, it just occurred to me that I’ve never actually been in a formal interview before.  Most of the time, the news crew might show up soon after a public fight and I might answer a couple questions or just ignore them and head off.  I did more impromptu interviews when my secret identity was first revealed.  Not gonna lie, the attention kind of went to my head.  But the novelty has since worn off and I’ve cared less and less about them.  I’ve been offered to appear on certain talk shows before, but until now I’ve never found the need to do so.

            Once Max set an interview up, all things were set and ready to go.  Within a few short days, I was already backstage with a makeup crew getting me ready.  I’ve experimented with makeup in the past, but not since my face has changed. Plus I was crappy at makeup before, so having a professional makeup crew was kinda neat.  My dark red lipstick making my lips look fuller than ever and the eyeshadow gave my eyes a smoky look to them.  While they were applying makeup, a hair lady was brushing my hair and putting products in it to make it shinier.

            Even more than the hair and makeup, I was ecstatic to wear a dress for the first time in my life.  It was a white dress that wrapped around my shoulders in a way that it formed a V on my chest, showing a bit of cleavage.  It went down to my knees where it flared out a bit.  Flowers lined it from top to bottom in red, blue, and yellows.  I tried to wear a pair of stiletto high heels, but after almost twisting an ankle Gwen insisted that I go for an easier pair to wear.

            “You’re pretty!” Gwen complimented me once I was done getting ready.  I curtsied in response and then giggled.

            “Ah, the great Jennifer Tennyson!” the show host, Lance Newton, exclaimed as he approached me.  “It is an honor to have you on my show!”

            Lance was an older white gentlemen, somewhere in his 60’s.  He had short blonde hair that he had slicked back.  He wore a black suit with a white undershirt and black slacks plus a pair of dress shoes.  He stood at around 6 feet tall and was quite thin.  His forehead was shiny with sweat, probably from the heat of the stage.

            “Call me Jen, and thanks but I’m the one who should be thanking you, Mr. Newton!” I replied.

            “Nonsense!  You’re welcome on my show any time!”

            “Show starts in 10 minutes,” a woman with a clipboard and headset calls out to us.  Lance Newton waved at her without looking up.

            “So, Mr. Newton, just to be clear on the intentions of this interview-,” I started.

            He raised a hand at me before interrupting, “Your grandfather has already went in great detail on the importance of this interview.  Trust me, all questions will be used in order to paint you as the hero you truly are!  No invasive questions or accusations will be made towards you.”

            “Thanks, I’ve never had an interview like this so you’d understand if this makes me a bit nervous,” I said.  My heart is pounding in my chest from the anxiety.

            “Of course!  Of course!” He replied, “It’s honestly a very easy process, you have nothing to worry about.  I’ll ask a few questions to spark a simple dialogue between the two of us.  Of course, the conversation will focus on the special guest!” He held both hands towards me as if presenting me.  “Then, after we talk, I’ll take a couple questions from the audience that you can answer and va la!  We wave you goodbye and the audience claps for your departure!”

            “Seems simple enough,” I said.

            “5 minutes!” the lady called again.

            “Well, looks like I should get out there!” Lance Newton said, straightening his tie and slicking his hair back.

            He walked onto the stage, a curtain hiding him from the audience.  He had a man follow him, handing him a head piece and adjusting it for him.  I cracked my knuckles nervously.

            “You’ll do great,” Gwen reassured me.

            “You sure?” I asked.  “You know, Grandpa Max’s main priority with this interview was the whole alien-human relationship on Earth.  While that’s important, I almost feel as if this interview may affect how people see the LGBT community as well.  That’s like three different groups of people relying on this interview.”

            “I don’t see the big deal,” Kevin chimed in as he walked away from the snack table with a paper plate full of various foods that I have a feeling wasn’t really meant for him.  “I mean, doesn’t the trans community already have a icon?  Caitlyn Jenner?”

            “Uh…”

            I was about to explain my issues with Caitlyn Jenner, but I was interrupted by clipboard lady, “Jennifer Tennyson!  Get ready for your que!”

            She pulled me away from Gwen and Kevin, both waving goodbye and wishing me luck.  I was shoved over by a curtain outside of the audience view.  The show has already started, with Lance Newton on stage giving the introduction to his show.

            “Now, ladies and gentleman, welcome to _The LN Show_! With your host, LANCE NEWTON!” the announcer called out to the audience.

            “Be careful not to break a leg,” Rook told me as he walked over to me.

            “Uh, no Rook.  You _want_ me to break a leg.” I corrected him.

            “Well, that makes no sense,” he complained.  “Would breaking a leg not be considered bad luck?  Nevermind.  Look, _Jen_ , I don’t understand what motivated you to change your gender.  I still do not see any practical purpose behind such a transformation.”

            “Do me a favor,” I snapped.  “Save your complaints until _after_ the interview, will ya?”

            “Let me finish!” he responded.

            “Well, you might wanna hurry,” I told him, hearing Lance Newton begin introducing me to the audience.

            “I do not see the purpose behind said transformation, but clearly you do; and I, as your partner, would better myself by trying to understand your motivations and accepting your decisions whether or not I agree with them.  So, I am looking forward to learning from this interview and educating myself about your predicament.”

            I smiled, “Thanks Rook!”

            “Ladies and gentleman, Jen 10!!!” Lance Newton announced and waved me up to the stage.

            I took a few steps towards the stage but then stopped myself.  I turned around and gave Rook a quick hug, his fur tickling my arms a little.  He was clearly surprised by this because he stiffened into a statue before I let go and ran onto the stage.

 

[][][][][][][][][][]

 

            I ran onto the stage and walked over to Lance Newton.  We shook hands before settling down.  He sat behind a rounded desk with a large screen on the front towards the audience.  I sat in a very comfortable chair, a small table sat next to me with a water bottle on it.  The stage was quite large with blinding lights on me.  I couldn’t even see the audience due to the blinding light.  Behind me was several large screens that had _The LN Show_ in large letters with smaller letters beneath reading “With our special guest: Jen 10!”.  The omnitrix symbol replacing the zero in “10”.

            The interview started off very superficially with some light small talk.  He asked me about college, how the school was handling a superhero student, and even jokingly impersonated Spidermonkey doing homework.  He asked me about my favorite foods, music, books, role models, etc.

            Then, after about 5 minutes of superficial small talk, we got to the topic everybody came for, “So, you’re transgender?”

            “Yes,” I replied, shifting in my seat anxious for the next question.

            “Tell us about that!” he took a sip from his mug as if expecting me to begin a long speech.

            I blinked at him, not sure how to answer such a vague question.   _Tell us about that?  Tell us about what?  Like, dysphoria?  My transitioning?  Can you be more specific?_

            As if he could read my mind, he followed it up with a more precise question, “What made you think to yourself ‘Yes, this is me!  This is what I want to do.’?  Why did you want to be a woman and not a man?”

            “Oh, ok,” I started.  “Well, I’ve been experiencing gender dysphoria since I started high school.”

            “Gender dysphoria,” he interrupted, “What’s that?  Can you describe that to the audience?”

            “Yeah, it’s the discomfort I’ve felt over the years living in a male body but wanting - no - needing to live in a female one.”

            “Ok,” he said, “Discomfort?  Is this like ‘putting your left shoe on your right foot’ discomfort?  Or, ‘Oh my fucking god somebody shot me!’ discomfort?”  The audience laughed at that joke.  Or at least, I think it was the audience?  Might’ve been a laugh track as I didn’t find the joke particularly funny.

            “I mean, it kind of depends,” I answered.  “Some days, it’s like a mild irritation at the back of my mind.  Other days, I cry myself to sleep because it’s unbearable.”

            “Woah, that serious?”

            “Mhmm.”

            “I see,” he cleared his throat.  “So, what is probably the biggest misconception people have about the transgender community?”

            “Probably that it’s for some sort of sexual reason,” I answered.  His eyebrows shot up and he looked dramatically at the audience.  I have a feeling I was taking this interview more seriously then he was.  “People want to paint this as some sort of fetish or something, but honestly it’s more akin to like body image issues.”

            “So you’ve always wanted breasts, curves, things like that?”

            “Since high school, yeah.”

            “Are you happy with how you look now?”

            “God, yes!” I exclaimed.

            “So, lemme ask you this,” he began.  “I don’t want to get to invasive here, but you didn’t transition in a way that most trans people transition.  You used one of your aliens.  So, how different is your transition from other options out there?”

            “Well,” I began.  “Human’s medical science has barely scratched the surface when it comes to this kind of stuff.  The alien I used, Alien X, has the ability to warp time and space itself.  So, I used his abilities to warp reality and turn myself into a girl.  Because of that, I am now indistinguishable from a biological girl.”

            “I see,” he responded.  “Would you have done the traditional way at some point?”

            “Eventually,” I answered.  “If I never used Alien X, I probably would’ve started hormones within a few years.”

            “How did your friends and family react to your transition?”

            “My parents are very supportive of it.  My grandfather and cousin supports me.  Some of my friends have been very supportive, some needs to time to get used to the change.  I’m not sure how extended family will react.”

            “But overall, it seems fairly positive in terms of reactions?”

            “Yes, very.”

            “Are there any struggles you, and by extension the trans community, face in today’s society?”

            “I’ve only recently transitioned, plus my transition was pretty abnormal as we discussed earlier, so my experiences are limited and unique.  However, yes trans people do face difficulties in society from discrimination and various other factors.  Some aren’t even accepted by their families and get kicked out, which is an issue the LGBT community as a whole faces.  Many trans people suffer from depression and 41% of trans people have attempted suicide at least once in their lives.  Life can be difficult for us, especially when you’re an LGBT person of color!” _I really hope Allison is watching right now_. “Plus, as a trans woman, my identity is being questioned so much with so many people debating whether or not I should even be considered a woman!”

            “That must be rough!  Is there anything you want to say to trans people, or anybody really, who might be watching this right now?” he asked.

            I paused for a second to think through my response carefully, “If you are in a safe environment, come out!  You’ll be so much happier if you do.  However, safety is your number 1 priority.  If you believe that your safety and well being is at risk by coming out, then get out of that environment as soon as you can so you can be your authentic self.  I know it’s hard, believe me I’ve been there, but things do get better.”

            “Very well said,” he responded.  “We’ll be back after the break where Jen 10 will answer some questions from the audience.  Stay tuned!”

            The audience clapped as the curtains came down in front of us.  I took a deep breath as I stood up.

            “Don’t go too far, now,” he advised.  “The break is only 10 minutes!”

            I nodded and went backstage where the others were waiting.  Gwen gave me a hug upon arrival.

            “Well, is nerve racking,” I joked.

            “You’re doing great!” Gwen reassured me.

            Grandpa max approached us from around a corner.  I ran up to him as soon as he was in my sights and hugged him.  “Seems to be going well!” I said optimistically.

            “Seems like,” he responded.  “Be careful with the audience questions, though.  We can’t really control what they ask.  If you ever feel uncomfortable with a question, you can always refuse to answer.  Remember that.”

            “Thanks Grandpa.”

 

[][][][][][][][][][]

 

            It wasn’t long before I was back on stage. Lance Newton welcomed the audience back and caught them up to speed in case any viewers were just now tuning in.  He requested a mic be passed around the audience and an assistant stood in the middle of the large room.  I still couldn’t see the audience through the blinding lights so I had no face to attach to any of the voices.  I did my best to look in the direction of whoever was talking to seem as engaging as possible.

            Most of the questions were fairly generic.  Some were about my aliens, others were about my gender, some was about my personal life, etc.  Things seem to be going very smooth and respectful.  One hand eventually shot up in the audience and as soon as the person receive the mic, she stood up.

            “Hello,” a lady’s voice spoke through the mic.  “I’m a concerned mother of three beautiful children.  My son especially was a huge fan of yours and we were both shocked at the recent turns of events.  How do you expect me to explain what you’ve done to my child and do you really think it’s appropriate for children to see people switching their genders around like clothing?”

            I stiffened in my seat uncomfortably, “Well, to answer your first question, just tell him that ‘Ben 10 is now Jen 10’ and he turned himself into a girl.  I don’t see how that’s confusing.  As for appropriate, I’m just trying to live my life-”

            “You are a role model,” she interrupted.  “Whether you like it or not, kids everywhere see what you do and looks up to you.  Do you really think it’s your place to tell kids what is and isn’t appropriate despite what their parents may be trying to teach them?”

            “Uh, you seem to be contradicting yourself,” I responded.  “You’re placing responsibility on me for teaching children what’s right and wrong and then immediately place that same responsibility on the parents and tell me I have no place to contradict that.  So, whose responsibility is it to raise your kids?  Mine or yours?”

            “But kids look up to you!”

            “And you know what I’m telling them?  I’m telling them to be themselves!  That’s it!  If you’re a parent, teach your child whatever you want.  That’s your business, not mine.”

            The mic was taken from the woman and given to someone else.  I sighed, and looked over at Lance Newton who was sitting uncomfortably in his chair.  He looked over at me and raised his eyebrows as if to say “Yikes!

            “Hello,” another lady’s voice spoke into the mic.  “I just have one question.  If Alien X is as powerful as you say he is, why have you never used its powers before and why not to help more people?  Like, why didn’t you transition all trans people, not just yourself?  Or end war or starvation?  Why only use that power for yourself?  Seems kinda selfish.”

            “Look,” I replied.  “Alien X is a very powerful being.  That much power shouldn’t be used by anyone.  I’m not a god and I don’t have any right to play god.  I use my aliens to protect people, not to change the world.  If people used that much power to change the world, where does it end?  And who gets to decide what changes and how?”

            “Ok,” she replied, “But these things are like universally disliked.  I mean, would it really be that terrible to end world hunger?”

            I Was about to respond, but another voice yelled out.  “She only wants to help herself!”

            “No, I…” I couldn’t stop it, the audience started getting worked up.  Different people yelling about their issues they want to be cleared up.  Money, sick relatives, etc.

            Lance Newton stood up from his chair, “Ok, calm down everybody!  Calm down!  Let-”

            I stood up and interrupted, “Look!”  The room went silent, “Even if I wanted to do all those things I couldn’t!  When I’m Alien X, I am one of three personalities within that form and two of those three personalities have to agree on a particular action before performing it.  It is very difficult to get them to agree on anything, so not only is that form too powerful to use but it’s also too risky!”

            “So, just, like, talk to them?” The woman’s voice spoke with a disgusting amount of condescension in her voice, as if everything I said to this moron went in one ear and out the other.

            I sat in my chair, defeated.   _What the hell is wrong with these people?!_.  Lance Newton called for the audience to calm down.  Suddenly, I noticed a figure leave their chair and make their way over to the lady.  I couldn’t see their face through the lights and everyone was too distracted to see.  As Lance Newton called some people to please sit down and calm down. The figure walked over to the lady and snatched the mic from her hand.

            “Jennifer,” a male voice spoke.  “Do you really think you can call yourself a hero when you’ve denied people the help they’ve needed only to help yourself?”

            “I, what?” his voice sounded eerily familiar.

            “I’ve been stuck in this putrid body for the past year or so, asking, nigh, begging for your help to return to my natural form and you’ve refused to help me!”

            _Oh shit, I know who this is…_

I stood up from my chair, my hand instinctively on my Omnitrix.

            “Sir, please be seated!” Lance Newton responded, but the boy ignored him and jumped onto the stage.

            “And now, you’ve selfishly used your aliens to help yourself.  Giving yourself the very thing I’ve been desperately seeking out for so long!”

            He walked into the lights so I could finally get a good look at him.  He looked exactly like how I did before my transition.  He had short white hair, red pupils, and pale skin.  Stood as tall as me, had the same build as me, and had the same voice as me.  He even wore an Omnitrix like me...no, not like me.  His was red and covered his knuckles.  This was the Ultimatrix!

            “Albedo!”


	9. Hypocrisy Thy Name is Jen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Long time enemy, Albedo, crashes the interview and shows Jen's hypocrisy through a warped lens of the past. How can people trust her after everything he said? And who's the mastermind behind all of this!?:

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for how long this took. I've been struggling to motivate myself these days. Hope this was worth the wait! I'll see if I can get chapter 10 out either tonight or tomorrow.

            The Galvans.  They are a race of small, grey aliens that only stand at an average of roughly 5 inches tall.  However, despite their small size, they are some of the smartest -- if not  _ the _ smartest -- beings in the galaxy.  It is thanks to their advanced intelligence that the smartest of the Galvans, Azmuth, was able to create the Omnitrix in the first place.  Initially intended for beings of any race to walk a mile in the shoes of another alien in the hopes of creating understanding and empathy within the known universe.  I, however, turned the device into a weapon (in my defence, I was not the first being with that idea in mind). But hey, I’ve done a lot of good with the watch! Enough good that Azmuth still lets me use it at least!

            This is where Albedo comes in.  Once upon a time, Albedo was Azmuth’s assistant as a fellow Galvan who worked on the Omnitrix.  Thanks to his prior knowledge of the device, he was able to not only create a replica of the device but upgrade it into the Ultimatrix.  With the new additions, he is able to simulate rapid evolution within the DNA causing the resulting mutations to be nearly 10 times stronger than their original forms and having their biology morphed into a much more war-intensive biology.  Having access to not only all my aliens but also capable of upgrading each and every one of them makes him a very dangerous enemy.

            “Security!” Lance Newton called out.

            “No, wait!” I yelled to no prevail.

            Multiple guards ran up onto the stage towards the intrusive guest.  Albedo dialed up his Ultimatrix in response and before the guards reached him he flashed a bright red light.  I could barely make out the silhouette of a six limbed monkey, I call him Spidermonkey, but the silhouette changed almost as soon as it formed.  He grew up to about 7 feet tall with very broad shoulders and six huge arms. He had six red eyes on his face with spider like fangs on both corners of his mouth.  He was completely covered in black fur except for his grey belly. This, was Ultimate Spidermonkey.

            The audience freaked out upon his transformation.  The guards all slid to a hauit but before they could turn around Ultimate Spidermonkey’s lower jaw split in half as he spewed out a stream of webbing as thick as a telephone pole.  The webbing had enough force to slam the guards onto a nearby wall, trapping them as they were unable to move. Lance Newton ducked behind his desk to hide from the massive alien.

            By this point, the audience has already started filling out through the rear exits of the room.  “No!” he yelled, “Nobody leaves!” He then shot a stream of webbing at the exits, trapping the rest of the audience from escaping.  Some people got stuck in the webbing itself.

            We officially had a captive audience.  I couldn’t let anyone get hurt. I dialed up the Omnitrix.  Albedo must’ve heard the beep, because a stream of webbing almost collided with me but I dodged at the last minute and ducked behind Lance Newton’s desk where he was cowering in the corner.  Barely missing the splat on the wall.

            I circled through my aliens quickly before I slammed down on the core.  Green crystals shards began sprouting from my skin and encasing my in the hard substance.  My jaw became thicker and a crystalline crest extended from the back of my head. My shoulders became broader and I grew slightly taller.  Usually crystal spikes would grow out of my back, but now that I’m a girl that didn’t happen.

            As Diamondhead, I have full control of crystals.  I stood up and extended a hand towards the end of the stage.  I crystalline wall broke out from the side of the stage and stretched to both sides of the room, separating Albedo and me from the audience.   _ That should give them some protection _ .

            I jumped over the desk and slammed my fist into the ground.  A wave of diamonds shot out of the stage, growing larger and larger as they approached Spidermonkey.  He jumped into the air to dodge the attack and then spewed a large stream of webbing at me. I instinctively formed a crystalline shield from my hand that the webbing attached.  Once Spidermonkey landed, he pulled the web and I went flying towards him. He grabbed my head and slammed me into the ground. I felt my skin crack from the force, which is something only very strong aliens are capable of doing.

            “You had this coming, Jenny!” he mocked as he stood over me with one foot on my chest.

            “What did I do?” I asked.  I held a hand up and shot a crystal shard into his gaping mouth.  He took a few steps back as I saw blood trickling out. He coughed up the shard and reverted back to human.  He spat out some more blood and glared at me. I sat up and encased his feet in crystals with a wave of my hand.

            “What did you do?” He repeated with venom dripping from his voice.  “What did she do?” He turned to face the audience through the crystalline wall.  I couldn’t help but notice the cameraman still filming us from the other side.

            My Omnitrix beeped and flashed red and I reverted back to human.  Clearly out of power, hopefully I can get him to monologue long enough for the watch to power up again.

            “I, ladies and gentlemen, was once a proud member of the Galvan race!  The smartest being in the galaxy, far more advanced than anything you have ever seen in your short lives.  I helped create the Omnitrix. The same Omnitrix she now wears. The same Omnitrix she used to permanently trap me in this human form!”

            I heard muttering in the audience but I couldn’t quite hear what they were saying.  Maybe monologuing wasn’t the best idea.

            “That’s not entirely true,” I responded, but he continued.

            “The same Omnitrix that she used to turn herself into that of your human females.  It disgusts me!”

            “What’s disgusting about being transgender?  Other aliens can-”

            “I don’t care what gender you are!” He interrupted angrily.  “That is less than relevant. The hypocrisy is what disgusts me!”

            He dialed up the Ultimatrix and in two flashes became Ultimate Humungousaur.  He was over 14 feet tall with green scaly skin and a blue shell covering his back.  He had a long tail with a mace at the end and metal on his knuckles. I went for my Omnitrix but it was still recharging.   _ Dammit!” _

            “You used your Omnitrix to cure your gender dysphoria, knowing very well how dysphoric I was feeling trapped in that disgusting human form for so long!  All I wanted was my body back!”

            “Species dysphoria isn’t a real-” I started, then I interrupted myself “Then again, you’re kind of a special case aren’t you.”

            “Yes, and you never lifted a finger to help me!” he roared.  His hands morphed into four-barrelled missile launchers before a rain of bone missiles streamed towards me.  I don’t know how I managed to get out of their unscathed.

            “C’mon! C’mon!” I yelled as I randomly started banging on the Omnitrix.  He shot his mace tail towards me and it slammed into the wall in front of me, causing dust and debris to surround myself.

            I saw the Omnitrix flash green through the dust and is hit the core instinctively.  I grew taller and more muscular. Yellow fur grew all over my body with black fur near my hands, feet, and head.  Electrical charges sparked between the hairs.

            “Shocksquatch?” I asked nobody in particular, “Not exactly who I had in mind, eh.”

            Before I could react, a reptilian hand grabbed my waist and lifted me into the air.  “You disgust me.”

            “Yeah, so you’ve said!” I placed both hands on his arm and released as much electricity as I could.  It barely damaged him, but his eyes widened as if surprised and he immediately dropped me and I landed on my ass.

            “Ow!  Hey, I didn’t even hurt you that much?”

            Humunousaur stared at me as if trying to comprehend what he was looking at.  He reverted back to human and looked around the room, observing his surroundings.

            “Uh, you okay?” I asked, standing up.

            “Where am I?” he asked, then took a few steps back away from me, “What did you do to me?”

            “Hey, you attacked me first, eh!” 

            “I...what?  I did-” he was interrupted by a pink mana rope that covered his mouth and wrapped around him.  He struggled but he lost balance and fell.

            “Where were you guys?” I asked as Gwen, Kevin, Rook, and Grandpa rushed onto the stage.

            “Sorry,” Rook replied, “Gwen turned off the lobby TV after the questions started getting...harsher.  By the time got here, you seemed to have finished the job.”

            “I have a feeling Albedo wasn’t all there,” I informed them.

            “Which is unusual?” Kevin asked.

            “No, I mean...He suddenly just snapped and...I don’t think he knew what he was doing.”

            “Might need to bring him in for questioning,” Max suggested.  “Help those people in the audience and we’ll take Albedo from here.”

            I reverted back to human and looked over at the audience.  Ultimate Humungousaur managed to shatter parts of the crystal wall when he shot at me.  I walked over to the shattered wall to look at the audience, most of whom seemed to be watching cautiously as if wondering if it was safe.

            “Ok, everyone exit calmly through the back of the stage!  If you need help getting up, I’m right here for assistance!”

            “Is it true what that boy said?” a woman from the audience spoke.

            “Come again?” I asked.

            “Was that boy really an alien trapped in your body?”

            “I mean, yeah he is.  But-”

            “So you’re a pervert and a hypocrite!”

            “Neither!” I yelled, frustrated. “Look, do you want help or not?”

            “What we want!” A gentleman spoke up, “Is a hero we can trust.  I didn’t mind you being transgender, but why help yourself and not that poor boy?  Seems to me you only truly care about yourself.”

            “But you don’t even know the full story!” I exclaimed, my voice cracked a little as I said it.

            It didn't matter.  Nothing I said would fix the damage Albedo has done.  I looked like a giant hypocrite. A fraud. If they thought I was covering Albedo up, what other secrets do they think I’m hiding.  I couldn’t take it anymore.

            I turned around and ran in the opposite direction.  I went towards the exit behind the stage. Gwen called after me but I wasn’t listening.  I left the building and activated the Omnitrix. My skin turned red and my fingers fused and extended into three long digits.  My toes merged together and formed two toed feet. A skin membrane formed between my arms and side forming wings. Once I turned into Jetray, I flew into the air jet away at high speeds.


	10. Breakdown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Allison and Jen share an emotional moment together before being interrupted by some old enemies. Because of course they were.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long to make but it's finally here. Hopefully the cute lesbians make up for the lateness :P

            Flying as Jetray is unique compared to my other flying aliens.  He flies so effortlessly through the air, it’s like I just slice through the very air itself.  It’s a nice transformation when I need to get somewhere fast, or need some space to clear my head.  Roughly 20 minutes ago, I flew away from an interview gone wrong where my entire life was basically ruined on national television.  Now, I’m hovering a few hundred feet above my partially damaged campus at 10 PM.

            Construction has already begun repairing the campus.  A few students doing late-night studying could still be seen at the library, in their dorm lobbies, or goofing off in the quad.  I landed quietly on the roof of my dorm. I was planning on sneaking in to pick up a few items since they haven’t officially moved me over yet and I needed some alone time.  Unfortunately, my roomie had guests over. I could overhear them from the roof.

            “Man, that’s fucked up!”  One of the guys exclaimed.  “Makes you really wonder who's actually the bad guy, ya know?  How many of those guys are actually good people that Tennyson screwed over just to hide his guilty behind?”

            “Dude, he clearly works for the government.  He probably knows all about their dirty little secrets but stays quiet for hush money!” My roommate’s voice chimed in.

            “So,” a third voice replied, “Government steals alien’s watch.  Government gives watch to Tennyson to use as a weapon. Tennyson’s DNA forces the creator to become Ben.  Ben and the government hides alien from the populace to cover up their secret project.”

            “Probably tortures alien for more info!” My roommate interrupted.

            “The alien is in Ben’s body, and not even his hot body!” The first voice joked.  “That’s definitely torture.”

            “Gay!” my roommate yelled.

            “It’s gay to find girl Ben hot?”

            “It it has a dick, it’s gay, dude.”

            I couldn’t listen to any more of this.  I slid off the roof and glided over towards the nearby woods.  I barely could aim where I was going due to the tears welling up in my eyes.  I slide into some tree branches and landed at the base of a tree. There was a small cliff with a stream nearby.  I curled up under the tree like a big red burrito as I just laid their crying while listening to the running water below.  I didn’t even care enough to turn back into human.  _ Why is this still happening to me?  I still feel so dysphoric. And people think I’m a fraud. _

            I don’t know how long I was under that tree but through all the tears I felt a hand on my shoulder.  I jerked my head around and kicked myself back only to see Allison staring down at me with a worried expression.  Her dark skin practically glowing in the moonlight.

            “Jen!  I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you!  I saw Jetray-”

            I interrupted her with a big hug and I started sobbing into her shoulder.  Only then did I even realize I was human again as I saw the Omnitrix glowing red on my wrist.  But I didn’t even care about that, I just kept crying and crying into her shoulder.

            “It’s okay, it’s okay.” she whispered calmly as she slowly ran her fingers through my long hair.

            By the time I was able to calm down enough to speak, her shoulder was drowning in her tears.  I sat up and got off her. I sat next to her, breathing heavily and staring at her with a blank expression, not really knowing what to say.  She leaned up against the tree I was under with her legs crossed over each other. She looked back at me with a worried look on her face, waiting for me to say something.

            “How did you know I was over here?” is the first thing I could think to ask.

            “There’s not many giant red bats in the sky,” she shrugged.

            “Oh, heh.  It’s more of a manta ray really.”

            She chuckled a little.  I looked down away from her, wiped a tear from my face, and tucked my hair behind my ear.  Allison leaned forward a little and grabbed my hand to get my attention, “hey, everything okay?”

            “No,” I responded, wrapping my fingers around hers.

            She took a second to think of what to ask next, “Wanna tell me the true story of that boy?”

            “It’s kind of a long story,” I told her.

            “I have all night,” she said with a smile.

            “Ok,” I said inhaling deeply.

            “But!” she interrupted as she grabbed my arm with her free hand and pulled me closer to her.

            “Hey!” I giggled despite myself, “What are you doing?”  
            “Tell your story over here so I can keep playing with your hair,” she said as she ran her fingers through it.  “It’s so soft!!!”

            I kept giggling for a few seconds as I felt my cheeks blush a little.  Luckily it was too dark for her to see. I hope.

            “Well?” she asked as I felt her hands keep running through my hair.  It was so long I practically sat on it sitting up.

            “Oh yeah,” I mentally shook myself to focus.  “So, Albedo’s an alien called a Galvan. Do you know my form, Grey Matter?”

            She thought for a second, “I think so?”

            “Small grey guy?  Anyways,” I continued, “Same species.  They’re some of the smartest beings in the galaxy.  Albedo was the assistant to the smarted Galvan, Azmuth.  They created the Omnitrix.” I said, holding my arm up to show her as if she hasn’t already seen it before.  I couldn’t help but notice it was glowing green again. “After I recieved the Omnitrix, Albedo got greedy and wanted to remake his own Omnitrix.  Azmuth warned him against it, but Albedo didn’t listen to him. Since he helped make the original Omnitrix in the first place, he was able to create a replica of the same device.  The only issue is both mine and his Omnitrices are connected to this thing called the codon stream which holds all of the DNA in our watches. Following so far?”

            “Uh huh…?” She answers unconvincingly as if trying to remember all this information.  Either that, or she’s too distracted by my hair which she started braiding. “A DNA stream that your watches are synced to.” she repeated.

            “Right,” I continued.  “So the issue was that  _ my _ DNA was set as the default code since I was the one wearing the first Omnitrix.  This meant once he created his version, his Omnitrix re-wrote his genetic code to match the default.”

            “So, it’s his fault that he looks like you?”

            “Exactly.  Azmuth left him in my body as punishment for recreating what wasn’t his to begin with.”

            “I get it now,” She replied.  “By the way, you got a hair tie on you?”  I pulled one of the hair ties Gwen gave me off my wrist and handed it to her.  “Thanks. So, he kinda blamed you for his situation on national television. How are you gonna deal with that?”  
“I...don’t know” I said.  “He made me look like a fraud and I don’t know how to make people see the truth.”

            Allison wrapped her arms around me and hugged me from behind.  I reached my hand up to hold hers.

            “We’ll figure something out,” she said.

            "Unfortunately, you’ll have to solve that particular predicament of yours some other time” a familiar voice spoke behind us.  We both stood up in surprised but I relaxed a little when I realized who the voice belonged to. “Apologies for performing what you might call a ‘cock block’” The thin humanoid alien said as he aimed a plasma pistol at us.

            “Uh, Octagon?” A larger humanoid alien next to the thinner one responded.  “They both are ladies.”

            “And?” Octagon asked, pistol still pointed at us.

            “They don’t have cocks!”

            “It’s a figure of speech, Rhomboid!” Octagon lowered his weapon so he could facepalm.

            “Uh, who are these guys?” Allison whispered to me, relaxing slightly as she realized I dropped my guard.

            “They’re the Vreedle brothers,” I answered.  “The thin one is dumb, the big one is dumber.  Neither are too threatening so long as they aren’t near anything that can explode.”

            “We have orders to take you in,” Octagon demanded as he raised his pistol back at us.

            “By force if necessary,” Rhomboid followed up with an even bigger gun.

            “Orders?  By who?” I asked.

            “Uh…” Rhomboid looked at Octagon dumb founded, lowering his weapon in confusion.  “Good question!”

            “I don’t particularly remember the identity of our employer,” Octagon admitted.

            “Well that’s helpful,” I replied sarcastically.  I leaned towards Allison, “Look, these guys are no threat at all.  Any of my aliens can take care of them in seconds.”

            “Ooh!  Could I pick one?” She asked.

            I shrugged, “Eh, why not?  Just don’t go too overkill.” I said as I held my wrist towards Allison.

            She circled through my aliens before letting go, letting the core pop out of the watch.  She slammed it with her fist and I felt the changes immediately. Warts started surfacing all over my skin before forming into fully formed eyeballs all over my body.  My ears extended from my head and grew larger. Ironically, the eyes on my face sunken into my head as they disappeared.

            “Hehe, Eye Guy!  Alright!” I exclaimed.  “Wait, no! Eye Gal!” I corrected.  
            “But ‘gal’ doesn’t rhyme with ‘eye’?” Allison retorted.

            “Oh yeah,” I thought out loud.  “Ok, new name entirely! What about, Optigal!”

            From one of the many eyes on my body, I noticed a third figure ran between a set of trees.  I didn’t have time to investigate though as the Vreedles began open firing on us. I grabbed Allison and jumped behind a rock.

            “Stay here and watch the action!” I exclaimed confidently.

            She didn’t have time to react as I jumped straight up in the air, using some of my eyes to shoot lasers behind me to give me some extra air time.  The Vreedles aimed their guns at me but I quickly shot an ice beam from the eyes on both hands to freeze the tips of their ammunition. 

            “Haha!  Big Chill eat your heart out!” I joked as I leaned against a tree.

            “Jen, behind you!” I heard Allison scream.

            “Don’t bother,” I heard a woman’s voice as I turned towards Charmcaster with a finger pointed directly at my face.  I didn’t even have time to react until pink smoke puffed out of her sleeve and hit me in the face. Suddenly, every eye on my body got super watery and I felt extremely dizzy.

            “Woah!  Too many eyes!  Making this worse!” I said as I could barely make sense of my surroundings.  Usually, the instincts of the alien comes naturally to me and I can make sense of the visual sensory that all those eyes give me.  But for some reason, now it was as if you sat me in a room with a dozen TV sets each playing a different show and expecting me to understand all of them at once.  It made me even dizzier trying to process the overwhelming visual stimuli that I usually don’t have a problem with. I reached over to lean on a tree but I miss and fall on the ground as I begin throwing up.

            “Get the girl!” Charmcaster yelled, “Tennyson is bound to chase after her!”

            “Wait!  No! Let go of me!” I heard Allison scream as I could see the two Vreedles grabbing her kicking and screaming.

            “Allison!” I yelled as I tried to shoot a laser at Octagon but missed by freaking mile.

            “Shut up!” Charmcaster yelled as I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head, knocking me out cold.


	11. Finding Allison

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Allison kidnapped and a plot slowly unwinding, Jen has one lead and she's going to take it. This mysterious mastermind is going down. and nobody will stand in Jen's way!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long...
> 
> So, I've been thinking...because I've been thinking about Jen 10 for a while, I've worked up some ideas for a sequel to this story. At most, I'll make this a trilogy which would allow me to explore different aspects of Jen and her character that I can't fit into this book. I currently have 17 kudos on this story, so if I hit 35 kudos 1 week after the final chapter is posted, I'll get started on the sequel!
> 
> Also, we're more then half way through the story, so I wanna hear some feedback from ya'll! What are you enjoying? What aren't you enjoying? Anything I can improve on? Lemme know!

            I woke up a few hours later in a white room consisting mostly of metal.  I was laying on a hard, white, metal table while listening to several computers around me beeping and booping.  The metal felt cold on my skin, including my back. It was then that I realized I was only wearing a bra and underwear, my dress must’ve been removed to run some tests.  Little patches were stuck to my forehead, neck, and several places around my body with wires sticking out of them.

            “I think she’s awake!” I heard a little voice next to me say.

            “How could you be so sure” a second voice to the other side of me responds.

            “Look!  There’s a spike in her neural activity!”

            “No there isn’t.” The second voice argued.

            “Yes, there is!  Just look at the screen!”

            I opened my eyes, but that was a terrible idea.  My head felt like my very skull was trying to crush my brain, and the lights did not help.  I sat up and rubbed my eyes.

            “How are you feeling, Jen?”

            I squinted at the chubby little Galvan looking up at me.  Driba looked like a chubby Grey Matter wearing a white Plumbers suit.  “Well, my head is killing me and I’m freezing. Otherwise...” I respond as I hug myself. 

            “It appears you have a concussion, likely caused by strong force to the back of your skull.” Blukic informed me.  Blukic was a tad taller than Driba and also skinnier. He wore a cap and overalls and spoke in a slight southern accent, which always confused me a little.  How does a human accent develop on other planets? “Do you remember what happened?” he asked?

            I tried to think but my memory was fuzzy.  “I’m not sure. I remember an interview, then I was flying as Jetray…” my thoughts trailed off.

            I pulled the chords and patches off me and stood up.  “Woah woah, hold on a second!” Driba warned me.

            “Might wanna take it easy there,” Blukic agreed.

            “Do you guys have any tylenol?” I asked.

            “I’ll get it!” Blukic responded.

            I tried to remember what happened last night but I couldn’t.  Last thing I remember was crying in the woods. I heard a creek as Blukic opened a cabinet and jumped in to look for medison. I looked up and saw a mirror on the inside of the door.  I looked at my reflection and noticed my hair tied up in a braid behind me. I pulled it over my shoulder, it was beautifully braided with flowers woven into my hair. Some of the flowers looked a little beat up and the braid was a little ruffled.   _ I don’t even remember putting flowers in my hair _ , I thought to myself.   _ Wait, when did I braid my hair?  No wait, I didn’t...Allison did. We were...in the woods.  Did I fall? Allison must’ve gotten me help. _

            Blukic gave me a pill and a glass of water.  After swallowing it, Driba joined us from a nearby computer.  “I called Magister Tennyson, he should be here shortly.”

            I barely heard him over my own thoughts,  _ If Allison got me help, why wouldn’t I be at a normal hospital?  Why the Plumbers? If I’m at the Plumbers, something more serious must’ve gone down. _

            The door slid open and I expected Grandpa Max to walk in, but instead it was Gwen followed closely by Kevin.  “Woah!” Gwen said in surprised and covered Kevin’s eyes, “Guys! Give her some clothes!”

            “Sorry!” Driba yelled as he ran to a nearby counter.

            “We were just running some tests,” Blukic defended himself.

            “And her dress got in the way!” Driba responded as he handed me the same dress I wore on the  _ LN Show _ , only now it was torn up and dirty.

            “Okay, you three, out! And get Jen some proper clothes!  We’re gonna have a little talk.”

            “Hey, why do I need to leave?  It’s Jen!” Kevin protested, eyes still covered by Gwen’s hand.

            “Out!” she yelled, shoving them through the door before sliding it shut.  She walked over and sat next to me on the table. “How you feeling?”

            “Memories fuzzy,” I responded, playing absentmindedly with my braid.  “Head hurts like crazy...what happened?”

            “That what I was gonna ask you,” she replied.  “Somebody heard a girl screaming and went to investigate.  They found you unconscious and called the police. Once they identified you, they contacted the Plumbers and here we are now!”

            “A girl scream?” I asked out loud.  “Was it Allison!?”

            “Who?” Gwen asked.

            “Allison, she was with me last night.  She found me in the woods after the interview.”

            “Did she ran off after the attack?”

            “Attack?!” I looked at her surprised, which caused a burst of pain in my skull.

            “You don’t remember?” Gwen looked worried.  “Ben - ack - Jen, there were signs of a struggle.  Plasma burns on nearby trees and rocks. Footprints in the mud suggesting a kidnap.  And I sensed a strong use of mana in the area that had Charmcaster’s signature.”

            “I-I-Oh my god…” it suddenly came back to me.  The Vreedle brothers, Charmcaster, Allison… “The Vreedles and Charmcaster kidnapped Allison!” I jumped off the table, my skull suddenly blasting with pain at the sudden movement.

            “Woah, easy easy!” Gwen held me by my shoulders to calm me down, “The Vreedles were there too?  That does make sense considering the evidence, but why would Charmcaster work with the Vreedles?”

            “I don’t think she was by choice,” I said putting the pieces together.  “Albedo, the Vreedles, Charmcaster, that orange alien man?”

            “The Taranma,” Gwen informed.

            “The what?” I asked.

            “The Taranma,very strong aliens whose powers focus on energy manipulation and conduction.”

            “Whatever, I’m sensing a pattern.  Somebody’s out to get me, and I don’t think these minor attacks are unrelated.  There’s a mastermind behind all of this.”

            “Like the Negative 10 when we were kids?”

            “Hehe, something like that.  But we can worry about that later,”

            “We can?” She looked at me quizzically.

            “My main priority right now is finding Allison.  I brought her into this mess, I’m getting her out.”

            “We can take two birds with one stone,” Grandpa Max responded as he and Rook walked through the door.  Both had one hand over their eyes, Max’s free hand holding some clothes. He held the clothes up for me to grab and I started putting them on.  They were some of Gwen’s clothes that she kept here in case she needed to change. A blue t-shirt with a cat logo and a blue plaid miniskirt.

            “Wherever these enemies are coming from, they must have Allison there as well.” Max continued

            “You can open your eyes now,” I respond as I finish getting dressed.  “Where do you think they would be?”

            “That’s what we were hoping you could inform us on,” Rook responded. “Do you posses any leads as to the origin of these recent events?”

            “No, I don’t,” I said rubbing my chin.  “But I know somebody who does! We still have Albedo locked up?”

            “Plumbers cell: Section A, Cell 3.7.” Max answered.  Each section is determined by how dangerous the prisoner is, with Section A being for the worst of the worst.  The first number is the level and the second number is the cell, meaning Cell 3.7 is the 7th cell on level 3.

            “Then I smell and interrogation!  Let’s go!”

            “Hold it,” Max placed a hand on my shoulder.

            “Wassup?” I asked impatiently.

            “Rook and I was talking it over,” Max started.

            “We both agree that you should not be left responsible for the matters at hand.” Rook finished.

            “Wait, what?!” I smacked Max’s hand off my shoulder.  “The fuck are you talking about?”

            “In response to your recent biological changes,” Rook continued, “it is believed you are not mentally prepared for threat at hand.”

            “But-I-Grandpa…?” I stuttered so upset I can barely think.

            “I’m sorry, Ben,” he responded to me.   _ Ben?!  _ “But the stakes at hand are to serious to allow someone in your mental position to-”

            “To what?” I yelled, “Save a friend?  Save lives? I’ve been doing this since I was 10!  If you thought a 10 year old could save the world but a trans girl can’t save a person, then...then…” I stammered, getting too frustrated to think straight.

            “That’s enough!” Gwen yelled, “The hell is wrong with you too?  This isn’t like either of you!”

            I shoved past Rook and Max through the door.  My head was still bursting but I was too mad to care.  I ran past Kevin and the two Galvans on my way out.

            “Hey, what’s going on?”  he asked.

            I ignored him.  I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m getting to the bottom of this.  Max would never say something like that, but it still hurt to hear him of all people say that.   Somebody is causing all this. I don’t know who, but I’m going to give them a piece of my mind. Right now, I only have one lead, and I’m getting the info I need whether Albedo wants to give it to me or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: "Taranma" is an anagram of "Tamaran", which is the planet of the DC Comic's alien species Tamaraneans which is what Starfire is. This is because the alien Jen fought is very loosely based off of them. Very loosely.


	12. Dreamscape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Albedo has no memory of his attack, but that doesn't mean it's not buried deep in his subconscious! Can Pesky Dust pull these memories from Albedo's dreams?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I referenced two Ben 10 episodes in this chapter so in case you need a mental refresh...
> 
> Ben 10: Ultimate Alien Season 3 Episode 5 "Double or Nothing": Albedo casts a Vaxasaurian, a Necrofriggian, and a Methonasian to play several aliens in his play titled "Ben 10: Live".
> 
> Ben 10: Omniverse Season 8 Episode 7 "Malgax Attacks": Albedo teams up with Vilgax fused with Malware to attack Galvan Prime. At the end of the episode, Albedo is stuck on Galvan Prime with a deactivated Ultimatrix being punished by Azmuth. This is the last time we see Albedo in the original continuity.

            I ran down the hall of the prison chambers.  Each section clearly labelled with a letter above the door.  The last section, Section A, had to be accessed with three different passwords: A facial scan, a spoken password, and a plumbers badge.  Fortunately, I had the later two. Unfortunately, the facial scan hasn’t been updated yet with Jen’s face.

            <Facial identification unauthorized> the computer spoke.  <Section A acess: denied>

            I yelled in frustration and slammed my fist into the door.  Of course the security for this section is so strict, this is the worst of the worst locked up at Plumbers HQ.  If you’re any worse then these guys then you’re sent off-planet to harsher prisons.

            “Jen!  Jen!” Two voices spoke in unison behind me.  I turned to see Blukic and Driba running towards me.  Or at least, they moved like they were running, but it was more of a light jog as they started panting as soon as they reached me.

            “It’s…*huff*...it’s Gwen and Kevin!  They…*huff*...” Driba panted.

            “They…*huff*...they’re fighting Rook and Mag…*huff*...Magister Tennyson!” Blukic finished.

            “Why doesn’t that surprise me,” I responded dryly.  “Look, guys, Rook and Max are being controlled by someone and I need to talk to Albedo to figure out who it is.  You guys have access to Section A, right?”

            “Of course we do!” Driba answered, finally catching his breath.  “We have access to all the sections here!”

            “No we don’t,” Blukic argued.

            “Yes we-”

            “ENOUGH!” I interrupted.  I quickly typed in the password again and raised the Omnitrix, doubling as my Plumbers badge, to the scanner.  I then grabbed Driba (probably squeezed a bit too hard considering his wheeze), and held him up to the facial scanner.

            <Facial identification authorized.  Section A access: granted! Opening doors now!>

            “Shouldn’t we be helping Gwen and Kevin?” Blukic asked, tugging on my sock to get my attention.

            “They can handle themselves,” I responded as I leaned down to gentle drop Driba on the ground.

            The doors slid open to reveal a large tube-shaped prison cell.  Each cell had a green energy field and a hexagonal-shape prison.  Each prison having two uncomfortable looking beds, a sink, and a toilet.  Right outside each prison is a walkway. On the other side of the walkway, towards the inner tube, is a long fall down with an elevator in the middle and cat walks towards the elevator door.  Each prisoner in their selective sell looked at me the second I came in. Most of them didn’t seem to care. Some called out rude insults and made vulgar requests, others slammed the energy fields to get my attention.

            I walked in and down the catwalk and into the elevator.  “Level 3!” I announced. Blukic and Driba ran in at the last second.  Once we reached level three, I walked out and looked at the first prison in front of us: cell 1.  To my right: cell 2. To my left: cell 10. I walked towards the left. Cell 9, cell 8, then cell 7.

            Albedo didn’t even notice I was there, he was too busy staring at the ceiling.  I never liked looking at Albedo. It always seemed odd, looking at someone who looked exactly like you but they’re not you.  It’s even worse now since he reminds me of what I used to look like. Back when I used to be a boy (yeah yeah, I know I know.  Can’t a girl feel how she feels?). His left hand was encased in what looked to be a large grey bubble, probably made of metal with a lock on it.  Must be so he can’t access his Ultimatrix.

            With Albedo defenseless, I decided he couldn’t cause too much trouble if I let the energy field down.  With a wave of my Omnitrix to the Plumbers Badge detector, the shield went down instantly.

            “What are you doing!” Driba yelled and took a few steps back.

            “We’re in so much trouble,” Blukic agreed.

            I ignored them and walked in.  Albedo was fully aware of my presence now but refused to take his eyes off the ceiling.  “Jennifer Tennyson (that’s what they’re calling you now, yes?), What brings you here?”

            “Answers,” I responded bluntly, “Why  _ did _ you come to  _ The LN Show _ last night?”

            “I told you, I don’t know!” He sat up to look at me.  “I know I don’t exactly have a strong track record for honesty, but for once I actually don’t know something.  I’ve been stuck on Galvan Prime with a disabled Ultimatrix ever since my partnership with Vilgax. Quite frankly, Azmuth left so many eyes on me I couldn’t escape by myself or contact anyone to help me in my escape.  So how I left my home planet is a mystery, even to me.”

            I glared at him for a few seconds, “Not buying it.”  I pressed down on the Omnitrix and circled through some aliens threateningly, “What is your  _ last _ memory?”

            “Falling asleep after another day of hard labor.  The same thing I’ve been doing every night for the past two years!”

            “Between then and last night?” I kept circling through some aliens.

            “After I fell asleep, I woke up the next day as an Ultimate Vaxasaurian in an unfamiliar location with you in your Gimlinopithecus form!”

            “What do you think happened between those instances?”

            “I DON’T KNOW!” He stood up in frustration, “I’m telling you, I have no memory of ANY of this!  No memory of leaving Galvan Prime! No memory of reactivating my Ultimatrix! No memory of hunting you down!  No memory of…”

            “Me transitioning into a girl?” I interrupted.

            “Excuse me?”

            “You told me, on stage, in front of a whole room of people and millions of TV sets that you wanted revenge because I got the body I wanted and you didn’t.  You’re telling me that you gave that whole speech and you don’t even have memory of it? Of humiliating me on national television? Making me look like a fraud?!”

            We glared at each other for a solid minute before he even answered, “No.”

            I shoved him to the ground out of pure anger.  Blukic and Driba grabbed me by the legs and tried to pull me away, but what could they even do?  Besides, I wasn’t actually going to hurt him. I dialed up the perfect alien for the job and slammed down the core of the Omnitrix.

            I shrank to about 2 maybe 2 and a half feet tall.  My miniskirt and shirt fused and grew into a green dress that reached a little past my knees.  Me limbs turned blue and more slender, with three fingers on my hand and two toed feet. My skin all over turned blue, barring little purple cheeks and a purple line from the center of my bottom lip to my chin.  Hair hair sucked itself into my head, forming into cute little pixie cut. Usually at this point, translucent insect-like wings sprout from my back, Instead, large butterfly wings burst from the back of my dress.  The inside of the wings were a bright blue color and the outside was purple. There were little white spots on the edges and long black extensions. Guess I really haven’t used Pesky Dust since my transition, didn’t even expect these different wings.

            “Aaaah!  A Nemuina!” Blukic yelled as he and Driba took a few steps back.

            I rolled my eyes, which probably wasn’t noticeable due to the lack of pupils.

            “Woah, wait!  I’m being honest with you!  That’s all I know!” Albedo said, inching backwards until his back was against the wall.

            I chirped a little, “Oooh, I believe you.  But just because you can’t access a memory - Krrrr - doesn’t mean it’s not in that lil noggin of yours!  I’m just gonna - krrrr - take a little peak!”

            I waved my hand and a green dust came off my fingers and clouded Albedo’s face.  He fought against it, but he quickly slid into dream land. Once asleep, I literally flew into his dream.  While in his skull, I have control over everything that goes on in there. I find myself on Galvan Prime, but sort of a distorted version of the planet.

            I chirped to myself absentmindedly as I observe the surroundings.  Once I found Albedo (which isn’t hard since it is his dream), I hovered in place and watched.  He was scrubbing red and black stains off a building but as 11 year old me instead of 16 year old me.  The stains were likely from my battle with Vilgax, last time I saw the two of them. He teamed up and Vilgax fused with Malware on Galvan Prime.  A nearby Galvan pulled on some of Albedo’s chains and called at him, signalling night time.

            The scene shifted to that of Albedo’s prison cell.  Much nicer than the Plumbers, admittingly, but also much smaller.  Albedo barely fit in it. He fell asleep and suddenly the cell broke apart and a red bolt of electricity Went straight for Albedo’s head.  I tried to see the source of the lightning but the figure stood right outside of Albedo’s memory bubble.

            “Ah, c’mon!  Krrrr!!!” I flew up to try and see the figure better but it was too blurry to tell.  Once I got closer, it disappeared and there was only a black void beyond Albedo’s dream.  “Noooo!”

            I looked down, albedo’s Ulimatrix glowed red and he morphed into that of my teenage self.  The red lightning formed a bubble around him and carried him off.  _ God dammit!  So close! _ I hovered there in his dream, pondering to myself.   _ Maybe if I can get a second look… _

            I flew up and essentially rewound the dream.  I saw everything I just witnessed play in reverse.  But reversed soooooo slowwwwww.  _ Faster! _ I yelled, but before I knew it, I wasn’t even on Galvan Prime.  Now, I was suddenly in a theater on Earth, and “Ben 10: Live” was playing.   _ Woah! Woah!  Too far back!  Too fat back! _  I skipped the dream memory a few hours and was found in a hotel bedroom.  Albedo was lying in a bed while a Vaxasaurian, a chubby Necrofriggian, and a Methonasian slept on the floor around him.

_             Gah!  What am I even doing here!  _ I got frustrated.  Traveling through memories and dreams is a lot harder than it looks!   _ Ok, lets see if I can find a dormant memory right between Albedo’s kidnapping and the LN Show Interview _ .  I calmed down and focused, but something caught my attention.  Sobbing? I heard sobbing!

            I looked over and the image was so surreal.  Albedo was lying in bed, looking exactly like teenage me, just crying into his pillow.  I couldn’t even look away, just the idea of one of my greatest enemies crying into a pillow just seemed so strange to me.  Imagine Vilgax crying into his pillow! That’s a silly image, isn’t it?

            I flew over to him.  “Uh, Albedo?” I poked his shoulder but my hand phased right through it with a wiggly afterimage.   _ Oh right, dream.  He can’t see or hear me.  I wonder if I can hear his thoughts?  I can control his dream! _

            I sat down on the bed beside him and listened intently.  After a few seconds, I could start hearing his thoughts as if he was speaking out loud.  “I can’t stand it anymore! I hate being a human! I hate it! I want to be Galvan again!  I miss my moist skin, I hate this gross dry human skin! I hate being so awkwardly huge! And disgustingly hairy!  I feel so weak despite being so big! Why can’t I just be myself again!”

            It sounds kinda silly out loud, I admit, but I couldn’t help but relate to his struggles.  You know, despite how many times we’ve fought, how many times he’s almost killed me, how many times he’s gone close to harming innocent people...I felt bad for him.  Being stuck in a body, a flesh prison, and loathing the very skin you live in. Hating how society sees you. Hating the roles you’re expected to fit. Hating what you see when you look in the mirror.  It’s so hard to deal with and there’s nothing you can do about it.

            “You know,” I said out loud despite the fact that I knew he couldn’t hear me, “I know that it’s technically your fault that you’re in this situation.  I mean, you are the one who disobeyed Azmuth and all… But despite that, dysphoria is a bitch to deal with. I grew up with it and learned how to cope with it over time.  You were just thrown into it without fully understanding the consequences of your actions.” I looked over at his face. I think he fell asleep, but his pillow is now stained from the tears.  “I don’t think Azmuth ever realized how disproportionate this punishment is to the crime. And, I didn’t even think to relate your situation to mine. I mean, species dysohoria? That’s totally not a thing.” I chuckled.  “Usually…”

            Suddenly, my Omnitrix started beeping and blinking red.   _ Dammit!  Didn’t even get the info I needed! _

            With a flash, I was outside Albedo’s body and I fell on my back.  I groaned as I got up. I think transforming into Pesky Dust helped my concussion, but now my back has a bruise in it.  Lucky me!

            Albedo gasped as he woke, “What did you do?  What did you learn?”

            “Well, I got a hunch.  I just hope it’s wrong…” I barely dodged as Albedo swung at me with his encased hand.  “Woah dude! Chillax!”

            He swung at me again with his free hand and then again with his encased hand, “No!  I don’t know what you’ve learned about me, but you will never tell a living soul my secrets!”

            He swung with his encased hand, I dodged just as it slammed into the metal wall and it fell off his wrist.  “Wait, was that thing not locked?!”

            I looked down at Driba and Blukic.  Both of them pointed to the other person.

            “Yes, I am fr-” I interrupted by grabbing his Ultimatrix hand, twisting it around his back, and slamming him into the wall.

            “Nope!” I responded.

            I grabbed the Ultimatrix core, twisted it, and pulled.  It came out easily, but a little red crystal fell out of the device and landed on the floor.  I let go of Albedo and picked up the crystal to examine it.

            “What did you do?” he looked at me in shock.

            “Pulled the core out of your Ultimatrix, Azmuth taught me how in case I needed to deactivate your device.”  I walked out of the cell and turned on the energy shields before Albedo got out.

            “No!  Give it back!” He yelled as he slammed his fists into the green energy.

            I held the crystal up to his face, “This crystal.  You used it to power your Ultimatrix, right?”

            “The Polymorphic Crystal.  Yes, it’s the key to the evolution function on the Ultimatrix.  With it, any transformation will-”

            “Will go through a simulated warzone that will evolve the alien into their most powerful form.  Blah blah blah, I know how the ultimates work, doofus! Now can I use this with the Omnitrix?” I asked.

            “You’d be a madman,” he threatened.

            “And why’s that?”

            “Yes, the Polymorphic Crystal is indeed compatible with your Omnitrix.  However, millions of years of war-intensive evolution does a lot to a species.  The Ultimatrix is designed to handle these changes and make these forms user appropriate.  The Omnitrix isn’t.”

            “What type of changes?” I pondered.

            “Imagine PTSD like symptoms literally ingrained into the very genetic code of your alien forms.  Anything that will trigger a fight or flight instinct in your alien forms will make it very difficult for you to control yourself.  You can cause massive damage, more than you might intend. Even to those you call your friends.”

            “Hmm…” I thought out loud.  I opened the core of my Omnitrix and dropped the crystal into it.  Once it connected to the device, the crystal turned green and the Omnitrix closed.  “Noted. C’mon guys!” I scooped up Driba and Blukic and ran towards the elevator.

            “Where are we going?” Blukic asked.

            “Oh, I’m just taking you guys out of the prison unit.” I answered.  “I’m going to find Allison. My one lead wasn’t any help, so I’ll need to try a different approach…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The idea of the Ultimate Aliens having PTSD like symptoms is an idea I've had for a while. I thought it would be cool since they go through billions of years of intense war to evolve them to these points. Since this isn't how they work in the show, I decided to re-work things a bit here so I can add this to my canon in a way that makes sense. The Polymorphic Crystal is actually canon to the show and was used in Ben 10: Omniverse, so I thought it was a nifty littlething to use.


	13. Hunting Instincts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jen visits Allison's dorm in hopes that Wildmutt can get a scent to track. Unfortunately, a mind controlled Vulkanus interrupts the hunt.

            By the time I left the Plumber’s HQ it was 4 in the morning, the sun would be coming up soon.  The HQ itself floats just outside Earth’s orbit, but there’s several teleporters on Earth’s surface that one could use to get back and forth.  The closest one to where I needed to go was my Grandfather’s plumbers shop (an _actual_ plumbers shop, not extraterrestrial space cops).  Once I ran out of his shop, I tried to dial up Jetray again but the Omnitrix was still recharging.  So I grabbed the Tenn-Speed (essentially, it’s a high-tech motorcycle courtesy of my alien Juryrigg) and drove off to my school.

            Once I arrived on campus, I ran over to Allison’s dorm which was, unfortunately, locked.  Since it’s 4 in the morning, nobody was coming in or out of there for probably the next hour or two.  _Technically, I should’ve been in this dorm to begin with_. I thought angrily to myself.  I checked my Omnitrix again. Yup.  Still in the red.

            That’s when I started thinking of other girls who might be on campus.  _Oh right!  Elena might be in there!_ I grabbed my phone from my jacket pocket and looked through my contacts.  Luckily for me, she insisted on giving me her number in case I needed to reach out to somebody on LGBT related issues.

            It went to voicemail twice before she picked up, “Um, hello?” she asked groggily.

            “Elena!  It’s me, Jen.  Are you in the Momsen girl dorm?” I asked.

            “Oh, Jen!” she suddenly perked up, “Uh yeah, I am, why?”

            “I need you to let me in.”

            “Uh, Jen, it’s a quarter after 4!  I’m not allowed to let you in.”

            “Well, can you get your RA and ask her to let me in?”

            “Uh, Jen, I am an RA.”

            “Oh,” I said surprised.  “You’re the president of the University’s GSA and an RA?”

            “Yesss” she replied and yawned, obviously getting tired again, “I’m a girl of many talents.”

            “Clearly, but this is really important!  Allison was kidnapped and I need to get into her room!”

            “Allison was kidnapped!” She yelled.  “But, she was in her room earlier! Hold on!”

            She hung up, but it wasn’t long before she was at the front entrance.  She turned the alarm off and opened the door to let me in. We went straight for Allison’s room and Elena pounded the door until Courtney opened up.

            “The fuck are you guys doing?” she asked, rubbing her eyes.

            “Is All-?” Elena started asking, but I shoved through both of them and turned the light on.

            “Which bed is Allison’s?” I asked, getting more impatient by the second.

            Courntey pointed to the one on the ground.  I dialed in the Omnitrix but yelled at it when it was still red.  “God fucking dammit! C’mon! Go green you worthless piece of…!!!”

            Elena finally walked into the room and turned to Courtney, “Courtney, when was the last time you saw Allison?”

            “Last night.  She was doing homework at her desk and then suddenly ran out.” she said pointing at a desk that sat right next to a window.  She must’ve ran out after seeing Jetray.

            “When?”

            “I don’t know, like some time after room checks?”  Courtney turned looked at me. “What exactly are _you_ trying to do?”

            As if on cue, the watch finally beeped green.  I dialed it in and circled through my aliens quickly.  “Using my hunting instincts” I responded as I slammed the core down.

            My skin tickled as thick, cream colored fur started sprouting all over my body and small quills sprouted from my back.  I grew larger and my muscles grew denser. I fell forwards as my back legs morphed into canine like limbs, making it difficult to stand on my hind legs for long.  My nails extended and sharpened into sharp claws and my teeth grew into that of a carnivorous maw. My eyes closed and disappeared into my face, which is a scary experience at first as the word around you turn black.

            However, soon after small gill-like slits form on my neck and my sense of smell and hearing are multiplied by a thousand.  It’s so much crazier then seeing with your eyes. Suddenly, every sound and every smell contributes to a 3-dimensional view of the world.  I can hear Elena and Courtney's heartbeat. I can smell the faint traces of the shampoo they used last night. I knew exactly what food was in their fridge.  I knew who was awake and who was asleep. I could smell the tiny traces of marijuana somebody the floor above us smoked yesterday. Things as close as the smell of Allison’s sweat on her bed and things as far as the metallic battlesuit outside that just leaped at us.  Everything around me became...wait, metallic battlesuit?!

            “Hey, that’s Wildmutt!  Isn’t-AH!” I interrupted Courtney and jumped at both of them, arms outstretched as I grabbed them and tossed them in the hallway.  Seconds later, then alien crashed through the wall of Allison’s room.

            “Tennyson!” A voice yelled through the rubble, “I’ve been looking for ya!”

            Vulkanus stood there as the dust settled down.  I heard a couple dozen footsteps as all the college girls crawled out of their beds towards their doors.  _God dammit!  As if the school need any more reasons to expel me._

            I turned to Elena, “Grrowl!  Grrr!” _I’m an idiot…_

            Elena stared at me in shock and confusion.

            “C’mere!” Vulkanus grabbed me by the scruff of my neck and held me up like a naughty kitty.

            “What the hell?”

            “Oh my god!”

            “What is that?”

            I heard everyone as they came out of their dorms.  Some stared at us, their hearts racing in their chests.  Others immediately ran for the stairs. I gotta take this outside.

            I howled as I scratched his face.

            “Ow!” he dropped me, giving me the chance to tackle him to the ground.  I pounced off his chest and landed a few feet away from him. I looked around at everyone staring at the fight, including Elena and Courtney.  I roared at them and pointed at the stairs. None of them took the hint. _Argh!  I need someone who can talk!_   I reached for the Omnitrix, but I was so distracted that Vulkanus got in with an uppercut to the jaw.  I landed on my back, he grabbed my foot and threw me down the hall and out a window. I tried to reach for the window ledge but all I did was leave some gashes in the brick.

            Luckily, I fell on the grass below.  I stood up, and finally had a short break to push the Omnitrix.  Anybody who can talk would be better then Wildmutt right now. Which, fortunately, is most of my aliens.  My skin glowed red as my body melted into living radiation. A metallic suit formed around me with three slits in my face.  The suit is large, heavy, and clunky but unfortunately it’s necessary to protect people from NRG’s radiation.

            “Ugh!  Testing!  Testing! 1, 2, 3.” I yelled out loud.  “Yup, I can speak.”

            Vulkanus jumped out of the window and landed 20 feet away with his back towards me.  He turned to face me, showing Elena struggling in his right hand.

            “Give up, or your friend here is history,” he threatened.

            “Oh no, please don’t take her,” I yelled dramatically as I raised my hands above my head.  “I surrender! I surrender!”

            “Woah, wait really?” He asked, lowering his hand enough that his shoulder became visible.

            “No,” I responded, shooting a beam of radiation right for his exposed shoulder.  His suit is designed to handle intense heat, so it caused little damage. But I managed to make Vulkanus flinch long enough to drop her.  He reached out to grab her as she tried to run off, but I ran up and tackled him into a nearby building. He punched me in the face, making me stumble, but not so badly that I couldn’t block his second punch.  While are hands were meshed together, he aimed for a punch with his free hand, also blocked by me. We stared each other down as both tried to shove the other with our strength alone.

            “What - ack - what are you even doing here, Vulkanus?” I demanded.  “There’s no taydenite anywhere near here!”

            “I’m not after Taydenite!” he yelled as he gripped me harder and swung me with all his might.  Sparks flew around me and I slid on the concrete. I sat up next to one of the school’s power lines.  “I’m after you!”

            “Well, I have inexplicably developed a popularity boost recently”

            “Right,” he replied.  “Now, you’re mine, Tennyson!” He ran towards me with his arms out.  I ducked, grabbed his waist, and somewhat awkwardly swung around him and took a few steps back until he was between me and the power line.

            “Right, now this’ll only hurt a little.” I responded as I aimed a big blast of radiation towards his chest.  He slammed into the power lines then started convulsing uncontrollably as the electricity went through his body.  The metallic suit probably didn’t help but then again I don’t know how well of a conductor extraterrestrial metals are.  Once the electricity stopped, the front of his suit fell open and he rolled out onto the ground. He’s only about 2 feet tall outside the suit.  Completely orange with a big head and little baby body.

            I detransformed and stood right above him as he regained himself.  “Ugh. What hap-.” his eyes widened as he got a clear look of me. “Woah, who are you?  Where am I?”

            “Vulkanus, listen to me.  I’m Jen Tennyson, I used to be Ben Tennyson.” I showed him the Omnitrix as proof.  “I-”

            “Tennyson?”  He stared at me with disbelief.  “You’re a girl now?!”

            “Yes, but that’s not important.” I tried to get to the point.

            “Not important?  You’re a girl! How did this happen?”

            “Long story, ugh!  Ok, I really need you to listen to me!  You were being mind controlled and sent to attack me.  Try and remember, what was the last thing you remember seeing?”

            “Pfft, why would I help you?” He asked, pointing up at me.  I just shoved the Omnitrix in his face and then pointed to his broken battle suit in response.  “Uh, point taken. Ok, look, last I remember I was in the Null Void because of you! Then, somebody came up to me and zapped me!  Everything goes blank after that.”

            “Do you know what this individual looked like?”

            “Uh, didn’t get a good look at him.  It’s the Null Void, not a lot of light.  He was tall. Had a big head. Kinda looked red to me.”

            “Red, tall, and big head…” I thought out loud.  “Wait, oh no...:”

            “What?” he asked.

            “Vulkanus!  Is he still in the Null Void?” I asked, staring him dead in the face.

            “How am I supposed to know?  But I will say, it’s very hard to get out of there so I reckon he is.”

            “Oh my god, this is bad.  This is bad, this is bad, this is bad…”  I’m a total idiot! How could I not piece together the clues from the start!  Red lightning, mind control, somebody who wants me dead...ok, that last one isn’t exactly a unique trait, but still!

            I ran off leaving Vulkanus behind.  He yelled something, but I didn’t listen.  I grabbed my phone and tried to call Gwen.

            “Hey Jen!” Elena called as I ran by.  “What is going- Jen? Jen!?”

            “Hello,” Gwen responded.

            “Yes, Gwen!  Quick, you guys are in danger!”

            “This is the cell to Gwendolyn Tennyson.  You know what to do after the…” her phone beeped signalling a voice mail.

            “FUCK!” I yelled out.

            I got onto my Tenn-Speed and punched in Kevin’s number.  I drove off as it answered, “Yo, this is Kevin. If this is for business, please leave your name-” I hung up.

_Dammit!  Dammit! Dammit!_


	14. Enter the Abyss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jen shows up to chaos at the Plumbers base. Max, Rook, Kevin, and Gwen are nowhere to be found and Null Void aliens have swarmed the place. Jen must enter the infamous prison dimension to find his friends and family. Including, hopefully, Allison.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long hiatus! But I'm back!!!!

            I arrived at Max’s Plumber shop as quick as I could on my Tenn-Speed.  If it wasn’t for the fact that the cops around here knows me, I’d have gotten a major ticket by the speeds I was going.  I ran into the bathroom and flushed the toilet, activating the teleporter pad. One second I was in a gross public bathroom, the next I was in a teleporter pod in the entrance room.  It’s a big dome-shaped room with multiple teleporter pods lining the wall.

            I ran through the exit and was immediately greeted with a small, red alien flying at my face.  “Woah!” I yelled as I ducked. The alien flew right over my head and landed in the room behind me.  He turned and growled before lunging at my face. Quick word of advice: Havok Beasts (which is what this little guy is) are small, fast, and has really sharp teeth and claws.  Not something you want near your face! I slammed the “close” button outside the door, making the room slide shut. I heard the “Bang!” as he fell face-first into the door.

            “What the hell is...woah!” I looked around to see a bunch of null void aliens causing chaos in the HQ halls.  A few Null Guardians flew around, biting at different Plumbers who were shooting at them like their lives depended on it.  Null Guardians are big grey aliens with sharp teeth, wings for flying, tendrils for limbs, and no eyes. There were also some Wigsilian Org Beasts crawling about.  Four legged ugly looking things with thick arms, bulgy eyes, and squat bodies.

            “What happened here?!” I asked nobody as I dialed into the Omnitrix.  My skin turned green and plantlike, my head glowed orange and red while red flaming petals grew out of my arms.  Once I became Swampfire, I threw some fireballs in the direction of the chaos. I guess that got their attention, cause I was immediately swarmed by havok beasts.

            I threw a blast of fire at a couple of them, knocking them down but not out.  One pounced on my leg and took a bite out of it. “Hey!” I yelled as I kicked it off me.  The bite mark healed up but not for long as two more grabbed onto the same leg. One Havok Beast got behind me and grabbed onto my neck.  Two more grabbed my arm.

            “Ugh! You do realize this doesn’t actually hurt, right?  It’s just annoying!” I used my free hand to grab the one chewing my neck and threw it as far as I could.  Clearly, they didn’t care. My leg was completely chewed off causing me to hop awkwardly. “Get off me!” I yelled, I started releasing methane from the palm of my hands.  They either didn’t notice or didn’t care that they were surrounded in the gas. I snapped my fingers, causing sparks to fly and light the methane cloud.

**BOOM!**

            Just like that, I was freed from their grip.  I stood up as a vein-like vine grew out of my stump for a leg and planty muscle started growing back where they chewed it off.  Most of the Havok Beasts laid around me injured, some might’ve been killed by the blast. The healthy ones ran off from me.

            I ran deeper into the base towards the main section.  I turned a corner to see a Org Beast with a dead Plumber before it.  It turned when it heard me, it’s maw and claws covered in blood. It growled at me threateningly.

            “Fuck you!” I yelled as I held my hands up to shoot flames but it grabbed my arm and bit my whole hand off.  “Hey!” I punched it in the face with the other hand.

            It roared at me and two other Org Beasts came around the corner.  “Oh come on!” I yelled. Once my hand regenerated, I slugged the first org beast, causing it to fall.  I ran towards the other two. One jumped on me but I simply grabbed it and tossed it over my shoulder. I then jumped over the third one, turned around, and blew an intense flame thrower from both my hands.

            Once that was over, I finally made it to the main sector.  It was huge, with computers all over the walls and several shelves that were usually lined with various weapons.  All of which were taken by different plumbers shooting down the various Null Void escapees. Several Plumbers and aliens laid on the ground.  I could only hope most if not all of them were simply injured or unconscious, I hate to see so many unnecessary deaths.

            One plumber I noticed off in the distance lost power in their plasma gun.  He immediately dropped it and ran but the Null Guardian he was shooting at wrapped their tendrils around him and started flying off.

            “Ok, that’s not happening,” He was too far for Swampfire to get to in time, so I needed a new alien for this job.  I slammed down the Omnitrix to switch aliens. Once I became Portailer, I instantly created a portal right above the Guardian in Question.  Once I was on top of him, I grabbed both his wings and hugged them tightly, causing him to crash. I jumped off of him as he let the Plumber ago, slithering away from us.

            “What happened?” I demanded.

            “The Null Void portal opened by itself!” He responded.

            “Has anyone closed it?”

            “We can’t!  It won’t let us!”

            “Where’s Max - er - Magister Tennyson?”

            “We don’t know!”

            “Rook?”

            “We don’t know!”

            “Gwen or Kevin?”

            “We!  Don’t!  Know!!!”

_             Well, this isn’t good. _ I watched as multiple Plumbers struggled with several aliens.  They were easily outnumbered, the portal must’ve been open for a while.  Hell, maybe it was opened immediately after I left!

            I tried to help out a few of the Plumbers struggling the most.  I would create a portal and slam myself into the alien before retreating into another portal.  Kinda hard to catch a two-tailed lemur when he keeps slipping out of reach. Portal. BAM! Portal...Portal.  BAM! Portal.

            I ‘ported myself on top of a Null Guardian.  “I wonder what would happen if I did this!” I grabbed one of the tendrils and the Guardian roared.  I pulled it with all my might, the guardian turned in response and attacked one of its allies. I ported to a safe distance to watch my art at work.  Two or three of the Guardians started attacking each other, biting and pulling and swatting.

            I looked around at the battle scene.  I’ve taken out so many of these guys already but it barely put a dent in them.   _ Ok, this isn’t going fast enough _ . I thought to myself.   _ There’s too many of them to pick them off one at a time.  But Portailer can only create one portal at a time. I wonder… _ I pressed down on the Omnitrix and four metal veins grew into my skin.  I then felt as my form instantly evolved. My two tails split into 5. I grew from 3 feet tall to 5 feet.  A third eye formed on my forehead but remained shut. My arm turned invisible between my elbows and my shoulders, making it look like my forearms hovered in mid air.  I also felt physically weaker, as if my muscles just atrophied instantly.

            “So far so good” I said to myself as I felt no PTSD-styled aggression that Albedo warned me about.  I closed my eyes and my third eye opened instead. I crossed my legs together in midair and my tails swayed behind me.  My third eye could see right through space and time. Portailer can create portals anywhere in the universe so long as I know where I’m going.  With Ultimate Portailer, I could see straight through time and space. I could even see different universes and alternate timelines. But that won’t be necessary at the moment.  My third eye looked into the Null Void and then looked at all the aliens causing chaos in the HQ. With a blink of an eye, every single one of them fell into a portal and instantly disappeared from sight.

            My third eye closed as my main two opened.  I landed on the ground as my Omnitrix beeped and reverted me back to base Portailer.  “Whoah, that was a rush!” I chuckled a little. I forgot how insane Ultimates are. They’re super powerful but also super scary.

            Some of the Plumbers started helping out injured Plumbers.  I turned to one of them, “You guys okay here?”

            “Yeah, we’re fine.  Get to the Null Void portal!  They’ll need your help over there!”

            I held a thumbs up and with that ‘ported myself right into the Null Void portal containment room.  Once I arrived, my Omnitrix beeped and I reverted to human. The portal is in the middle of a large room dedicated to keeping it functional.  The most shocking thing to me was the To’Kustar hand that was blocking the way. On one hand, at least it was blocking more aliens from coming in.  On the other hand, there’s a giant freakin hand trying to grab something.

            “Jen!  Jen!” I turned to see Blukic and Driba.

            I ran over there, “Guys, what the hell is happening?!”

            “Max, Gwen, Kevin, and Rook opened the Null Void and just waltzed right in there!” Blukic answered.

            “When we tried to close the portal, it refused to shut!  And all these aliens got in!” Driba finished. I couldn’t help but notice some Null Guardians in the higher parts of the room.  So long as we don’t disturb them, they should be fine.

            “Ok, here’s the plan.” I stood up authoritatively to get their attention, “One of my old enemies are mind controlling people to get to me.  They kidnapped Allison. They mind controlled and kidnapped Max, Rook, Gwen, and Kevin. And they probably have quite a few people who hates my guts in there two.  However, this mind control can be neutralized by a mild electric shock. Do you guys have any low-powered tasers or something?”

            “It’s in our Plumbers suit as self defense!” Blukic responded.

            “Great, you guys are coming with me into the Null Void to help find the others.  While I’m fighting the bad guys, find Max and the others, give them a mild shock, and catch them up to speed.  They can help once we’re together. Understood?”

            “There’s still one factor that you are but forgetting about!” Blukic reminded me.

            I raised an eyebrow, “The big honking To’Kustar hand blocking the portal!” Driba yelled.

            “Oh that!  Pfft, don’t worry about that!  I can take care of it, but I need you guys to be with me on this.  Understood?”

            “Yes ma’am!” They saluted in unison.

            “Good,” I walked past them towards the portal.  I heard two “Clincks!” as they jumped off the platform to follow me.  The giant hand was nearly 20 feet from wrist to the tip of its finger and it kept reaching out to grab one of us.  The size of its wrist was the only thing stopping it from plucking me from where I stood.

            I reached behind my head and slid Allison’s braid over my shoulder.  All the flowers have fallen out from running and the braid looked like it was slowly coming apart, but it was still hanging together.   _ I brought you into this mess, and I’m getting you out. _

            I tossed my braid behind me as I dialed up the Omnitrix.  I slammed down the core, triggering the transformation. My skin turned red as my index and middle finger fused together and extended, my pinky and ring finger fused as well.  My arms grew longer as a yellow membrane stretched between my arms and my legs. Gills formed on my abdomen and a yellow crest grew from my head.

            Once I became Jetray, I grabbed the two Galvans and placed them on my shoulders.

            “Hang on!” I warned them.

            I shot a laser right at the palm of the giant hand.  The being roared and the hand retreated from the portal.  I jumped through to see the giant alien holding its wrist.  A bunch of smaller aliens kept their distance from the giant beast.  I flew right past the aliens face. He reached out to grab me, but I was too fast and easily flew right out of reach.  Now I just have to find where they’re being kept, but I already know where that is.  _ I’m coming for you guys. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to clarify:
> 
> Portailer's main ability is to create portals. He does this by creating a whole in space. He can teleport anywhere in the universe so long as he's been there before or can see where he's 'porting to. He's also stronger and more agile then the average human.
> 
> Ultimate Portailer is a huge step up. His third eye can see into alternate universes and even forwards and backwards in time. Meaning he can travel into any universe or time he wants (including the Null Void, Ledgerdomain, and Dimension 23). In addition, he can also create multiple portals and each portal can lead to a different location. While not really shown in this chapter, he also has telekinesis and these spacial rends that can cut right through space. He may sound OP (he's an ultimate alien, what do you expect?) but he does have a few weaknesses. Physically speaking, he's weaker then the average human due to his heavy reliance on his spacial abilities. Catch him off guard and it's very easy to take him out.
> 
> Fun fact: Portailer's species, Holemurs (hole as in a hole in space mixed with lemures), are related to and share a planet with Arachnechimps (Spidermonkey's species).


	15. Enter Servantis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After sneaking into Rooters HQ, Jen finally reaches Servantis who has gathered many of Jen's former villains and formed a second-rate Negative 10.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm on fall break so I'm hoping to get the next 5 chapters out within the next few days and finish this darn thing. IMO, the next couple chapters are probably going to be the most exciting since the early chapters with Alien X. Hope ya'll enjoy!

            It didn’t take long before I reached the ship I was looking for.  It looks like your typical space ship.  Long metal rod with a ring around it.  It was mostly black and grey but it had some reds here and there.  Guess they had “evil” in mind when they built this thing.  This, ladies and gentlemen, is the HQ of the rooters.  Or, as I like to call them, the Jen 10 Hit Squad.

            The Rooter’s leader calls himself Servantis.  Servantis, is half human and half Cerebrocrustacean.  His Cerebrocrustacean half gives him his special abilities including electrokinesis, telepathy, and, yes, mind control.  This makes him a dangerous threat.  The Rooters were originally assigned as a Plumbers Black Ops team, doing missions that normal Plumbers couldn’t.  Unfortunately for them, they felt the need to stretch their bounds when I showed up.  With the Omnitrix on my wrist, they saw me as a universal threat and went after me.  After that whole fiasco went down, the Magistrata of the Plumbers (that rank, for the record, is even HIGHER then my Grandfather’s Magister status) banned him permanently into the Null Void and we haven’t see them sense.

            I guess that’s why it took me so long to put the pieces together.  But who else has mind controlling abilities and wants me dead?  And by controlling my other villains, they can accomplish a lot without ever leaving the Null Void.  But taking Allison is too damn far and they’re going to pay for that!

            Once we arrived, I switched over to Ghostfreak temporarily to phase into the ship before reverting back to human.  I entered through the ring surrounding the HQ and ended up on a random room.  I couldn’t even see it was so dark, but the smell was awful and my elbow touched something wet.

            “Ew!” I complained as I reverted back to human.  The two Galvans jumped off my shoulder onto the ground, making it difficult to see them in the dark room.  “Ok, guys, focus on finding the other’s first and THEN we can confront Servantis.”

            “Sure thing, Jen!” I heard Blukic respond.

            “Only one question,” Driba replied, “How are we going to find

            “You have your Plumber badges, right?” I asked.

            “Oh, yeah!  I forgot we can use them to locate other Plumbers!” Driba took his Plumbers badge out of his utility belt and turned it on.  The light lit up the room, making me only now realize we were in the Janitor’s closet.  Lovely.

            The badge blinked a few times to collect data from its environment before revealing a three-dimensional map of the ship and three blinking Plumber symbols lined up together in a room near the top of the HQ.

            “That must be Max, Gwen, and Kevin!” Blukic said excitedly.

            “And Allison is probably with them too.  Let’s go!”

            I opened the door and ran down the halls, Blukic and Driba following close behind me.  Once in the halls, I realized none of the lights were on.  The only light anywhere was coming from outside the HQ through the windows.  There were several electronic doors open a crack as if they haven’t been turned on in a while and it was just easier than manually pulling them open or shut.

            “Jeeze, is this place abandoned or something?” I asked, confused by the circumstances.

            “This place was able to run under Plumbers’ funds to keep it operational.” Driba answered.

            “Since the Rooters aren’t Plumbers anymore, I reckon they’ve diverted power away from most of the ship so it can last longer.”  Blukic continued.

            “Cause once they run out of power, they’re dead in the water.” I finished their line of thought.

            It took us a while to follow the Plumber’s badge to the location of the others.  Long halls, many turns, and multiple stairs to climb as all the elevators were offline.  That, plus Driba misread the map so we had to go back a few places.  The entire place looked like it was growing old and warn.  Dust covered every inch of the walls and floors.  Webs grew in every corner (didn’t even know there were spiders in the Null Void).  A few dead aliens rotted here and there and we ran past the alien equivalent of a rat multiple times.

            At last, we reached the center of the base with the only operational elevator I’ve seen online.  I looked at Driba’s map.  There were two floors above us, and the highest floor is where the Plumber signals were located.  Unfortunately, the elevator only reached the lower floor where a stair case led up to the higher one but on the opposite side of the room.

            “Okay, there might be a chance that there are enemies on that lower floor.  I’ll distract them while you two slip into the top floor and do your thing.  You guys are small, if you’re quick they may not even notice you.  Don’t get caught, got it?”

            They nodded.  I pushed the button and the door slid open.  All three walked in and sat in anticipation as it rose us to the lower floor.  It opened and I was nearly blinded by the harsh lights of the well-lit room after being in dark halls for the past hour.

            “Jennifer Tennyson,” a voice spoke, “So nice of you to join us”.

            I squinted to get a better look at the surroundings.  Servantis stood in the center of the room surrounded by multiple villains from my past.  Of course, he had his own two henchmen; can’t remember their names, but one is half Prypiatosian-B (NRG’s species) and one is half Aerophibian.  There were also the Vreedle brothers, Charmcaster, Zombozo, Psyphon, Attea, Billy Billions, and…Argit?

            “Really?  Ten baddies?  We’re doing this again?” I asked flippantly.

            “I…I beg your pardon?”

            “Ya know, the Negative Ten?  That Forever Night loser formed them when I was ten, and much better I might add.”

            “Better?” he almost looked offended.

            “Yeah way better.  The Vreedle brothers?  Billy Billions?  Hell, Argit isn’t even really a villain, more of a nuisance really.  The last one had Rojo and Clancy.  At least you have Charmcaster in there.  Kinda sloppy seconds from the last one, though, don’t you think?”

            “Ok, enough of this!” He yelled, “I didn’t gather all of your enemies to be mocked.”

            “Then why did you get-?”

            “SILENCE!” He yelled, obviously getting frustrated, “I-I-Ugh!  Destroy him!” he yelled, his skull opened up and an electrical current reached almost everyone in the room.

            Before I even had time to react, the Vreedles started shooting in my direction.  I barely dodged as I ran out of the way. Soon after that, I smelled something burning and I felt my braid falling apart and my hair fell over my left arm.  I looked down to see the tips of my hair singed from the plasma blast.

            “Hey!  Not the hair!” I dialed up my Omnitrix and slammed down the core.  My skin turned brown and rough with scales.  I felt my body growing larger as my muscles grew thicker and wider.  A tail grew from behind me as I stood up.  I easily dwarfed everyone in the room, being a 12 foot tall dinosaur.

            “Time to show you guys why they call me, **HUMUNGOUSAUR!!!”**


	16. Jen 10 Vs the Negative 10 II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jen has to defeat the Servantis's Negative 10 before she can save her friends and family. That can't be too hard, right?

            As Humungousaur, I’m fairly resistant to plasma blasts, neuroshocks, and radiation.  But resistant doesn’t mean painless.  Billy, Psyphon, and the Aerophobian girl kept in the air, staying out of reach while shooting me from distance.  The Vreedles and Prypiatosian-B also kept their distance while shooting me on the ground.  Zombozo and Attea decided to get up close and personal.  They may seem easy to take out, but both were too quick for me.  Jumping and leaping and ducking all my throws.

            Attea shot a tongue punch at me that hit me in the chin.  Surprisingly, that actually stung a bit.  I went after her before Zombozo’s extando arms got a cheap shot in while I wasn’t looking.

            “Ugh!  Stand still!  AH!!” I roared as I felt a laser hit my shoulder.  I looked up to see the Aerophibian girl retreating from her attack.

            “Oh no you don’t!” I swatted Zombozo aside but missed Attea.  Regardless, I charged after the Aerophobian.  I reached out to her before two magical cuffs hooked onto my wrists.  “Wha?”

            The cuffs pulled on me surprisingly hard.  I forced me into a kneeling position with my wrists on the ground, palms up.  God, this was uncomfortable.  I felt something tickle my back as Argit landed on me and flared his quills out.

            “Oh no you don’t!” I began to grow in size.  My skin becoming harder and more callused.  My wrists grew inside the cuffs, causing them to shatter.  I wasn’t my max height, but a 40 foot tall Vaxasaurian isn’t anything to scoff at.  With my hands now free, I stood up and slugged Argit off my shoulder.  I looked over to see him laying unconscious.

            “One down,” I said lookup at the others, “Nine to go.”

            Billy and Psyphon flew past me, but landing a hit on my back and arm.  I reached out and just almost reached Psyphon.  _The bigger I am, the higher I can reach and the less their attacks hurt.  However, I also become a bigger target._   I raised my arm over my face to block one of the Vreedle’s blasts.  Still trying to work out a strategy to take out 10 different bad guys.  In front of me, the fliers were circling around for another strike.  Behind me, Zombozo and Attea was regrouping.  _Have to time this just right_.

            I ran towards the fliers with my arms out to try and catch them.  They all hovered in mid air and simultaneously shot at me.  I shrunk just in time for the blasts to miss my face.  I turned to see Zombozo, Attea, and one of the Vreedles (wasn’t even trying to get him) unconscious on the ground.

            “Finally, progress.”

            The three fliers flew at me again.  I quickly grew to my max height, my head skimmed the ceiling as I walked.  This room was huge, but a 60 foot dinosaur is a bit much.  Once they were in reach I slammed my hands together to grab them.  I grabbed the girl, but the shockwave from my clap was enough to knock the other two down to the ground.  I then slammed the Aerophibian down on top of them, knocking them both out.

            A magical rope wrapped around my wrist and immediately forced in behind my back.  I turned to see Charmcaster attempt another spell.  “Like I’m gonna…hmph!” the rope wrapped around my mouth then around my throat multiple times.  I reached for my throat with my free hand but the rope tied my arm to my chest.  I began suffocating and losing air. I shrank quickly in an attempt to slip out of the bonds but the rope shrank with me.  I then tried to grow to break the rope, but the rope grew with me.  This thing was not letting up!

            The remaining Vreedle and NRG dude saw the chance to start shooting at me.  I screamed through my rope.  The radiation hurt a lot upon impact but the Vreedle was closer.  I managed to turn fast enough to slam my tail into him, but with these ropes and the radiation I might be done for.

            I had to think fast.  The rope wrapped around my legs, causing me to trip and fall.  I struggled in the bondage for a few minutes before I laid still, trying to trick them into letting me free.  I had to force myself not to struggle even though my lungs screamed for air.  Charmcaster observed me for a few seconds before the ropes disappeared.  I stayed still for a few moments longer before I gasped for breath.

            “You!” She waved her hands but I didn’t give her time to perform another spell.  I slammed my hand into her, I felt a rib of hers crack from the impact.  _Ugh, I probably should’ve been gentler.  She’s being mind controlled after all._

            “Nine down,” I said as I stood over the NRG dude, “One to go.  Are we gonna do this the easy way?  Or, the easy for me way?”

            His helmet opened as he flew up to my face and shot a direct beam at me.  “Ah!  Ok, for the record, I didn’t know you could do that!”

            He fired two more beams at me as I tried to swat at him.  The room started feeling way hotter.  I began to sweat and some of the metal around us started melting.  “Oh man, you’re going nuclear aren’t you.”  His body glowed brighter and brighter as he released all his energy.  In my NRG form, I can release enough radiation to simulate an atomic bomb.  Sure, I could probably survive that as Humungousaur, but I’d pass out from the intense heat.

            I ran towards him but the radiation resisted against me.  The metal beneath me started melting, and lemme tell ya melted metal is fucking hot and it fucking hurts.  My skin burned all over, like I was being cooked.  I kept inching towards him little by little as he became more and more intense.  The ceiling dripped on me, resulting in hot metal burning my shoulders.

            “Aaaaaah!” I couldn’t help but roar in pain as my hands slammed together, capturing him in my grip.  Next time you’re cooking on an electric oven, place both your hands flat onto the surface.  That’s what this felt like.  (Also, please don’t actually do that…I don’t want to be responsible for any third degree burns!)

            I slammed him back into his suit and squeezed it shut.  I collapsed onto my knees, my hands searing in pain from holding him, my feet in pain from the ground, and my back in pain from the melted metal.

            _I have to keep goin_. I thought to myself.  I forced myself onto my feet, ignoring the immense pain from simply standing.  I turned around and shrunk down to my base size as I walked towards the stair way.  _It’s hero time._


	17. The End of Evil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Jennifer arrives for a rescue mission, she learns that the villain of our story isn't an evil scientist but a benevolent father who wishes to end the evils of the world. His goal of ending bigotry and hatred throughout the galaxy is genuine and honest. Can Jennifer even say no? TW: Intense homophobia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~~PLEASE READ!!!!!!~~  
> (Even if you don't usually read the notes)
> 
> The ending to our story is one I've been debating on for a very long time. Ever since I started this project, I've had two endings in mind for the end of this series. One ending being a very generic "Hero defeats villain and gets the girl at the end (but it's gay!!!)". The other ending would leave for a more open ended story that could possibly make room for a sequel. It would have a greater discussion of philosophy, politics, racism, homophobia, etc. This is the ending I chose. Perhaps I'm a little over my head here. Perhaps I made certain scenes more graphic then I should have.
> 
> I understand that because this is a Ben 10 fanfiction, you may not be used to seeing this show taken to such extremes. If seeing this dark of an interpretation of the show isn't for you, I understand. However, I've fantasized being this character since I was a fucking kid and I've always tried to imagine how Ben 10 would work in the real world. Now, that's not really what the show is about. It's about fun adventures with cool aliens. But if you had the powers of Alien X at your finger tips, what would you do with it? What would be the moral path? The responsible path? What even ARE the moral or responsible paths?
> 
> While Ben 10 may not be real (although, I'm still hoping one day I'll find my Omnitrix!), the evils I present in this story are very real. While these scenes may be graphic, my hopes is that I'm not using shock for the soul purpose of shock value. I'm hoping to use these to ground this story in a way that I've never seen done before. Sure, giant alien squids trying to rule the world is a really fun idea. But a gay teen being violated and murdered is far more real and serious. If I had the Omnitrix, I would do so much with it to end evil where I can find it. Human trafficking, pedophiles, rapists, murderers, homophobic and racist hate crimes, etc. My fantasies usually don't actually involve an evil squid alien trying to steal the Omnitrix from me (I mean, sometimes it does...). Usually, it involves me using Wildmutt to hunt down human trafficking chains and then bursting in with Diamondhead or XLR8 to save them. I know these are dark concepts the show would NEVER touch, but these are evils of the real world that I feel like I can't face myself but I would end in a heartbeat if I had the power.
> 
> It may be obvious by now, but this chapter is the chapter I'm most proud of for this entire series. It's also the longest chapter of the series (lol, sorry!). I just hope I went down the right path with this story.

            The higher level was a disaster before I even got there.  It was just as wide as the lower level, but nearly half as tall.  To the right of me, I saw multiple energy fields with five of them containing my friends and family Servantis kidnapped.  Blukic and Driba laid unconscious next to them, smoke peeling off their jumpsuits as if they were just fried.  Gwen, Kevin, Rook, and Max were upright and pounding at their energy fields.  Despite this, no noise escaped their cylindrical prisons.  Allison sat at the base of hers as if she’s given up long ago.  Her knees in her chest and her arms wrapped around her legs.

            On the far side, Servantis stood on a metal platform at the controls.  The Taranma floated next to the platform, a few feet off the grounds.  But there was one more person, I’ve never seen this person in my life.  He appeared as a white man of muscular built around 6 feet tall.  He was bald but possessed 6 fleshy horns on top of his chrome dome.  It appeared the three of them were arguing but this mysterious man said nothing.  He simply stood there as Servantis yelled at him.

            I was surprised nobody noticed the 12 foot dinosaur as I climbed up the stairs.  Well, nobody accept Allison who, immediately stood up in excitement upon noticing me.  I held my finger up to my lips, even though I didn’t really think she could make any noise in the containment field.  Regardless, as I entered the room, I was greeted by a warning shot before me.  The Taranma’s hand sizzled at his side as everyone in the room became aware of my presence.

            “I know this line is a bit cliché, but I’m officially over whatever operation you have running here.  Let them go, now!” I threatened.

            “You’re not in the position to make demands, child” Servantis scoffed.

            “You don’t even care about them!  You’re after me, right?  The coming storm?” I yelled, “At least let Allison go!  Me, Grandpa, Gwen…we all chose this life and accepted the consequences, she didn’t.”

            “You presume much,” the Taranma sneered.

            Before I could even blink, the Taranma instantly appeared in front of me and pushed me against the wall.  Even as Humungousaur, a simple shove sent me flying.  But in my defense, I did NOT see that coming.

            “I grow weary of this pointlessness,” he announced.  “Give me your Omnitrix, girl.  And that was not a suggestion.”

            I glared at him as I stood up.  “’Pointlessness’” I spoke with anger dripping from my mouth.  “You trash my campus.  You kidnapped my friends and family, including the first actual friend I’ve made in a long time.  You made Albedo humiliate me on live television.  Made me look like a fraud.  Stole what should’ve been the best day of my life and turned it into some of the worst days I’ve ever experienced.  I. HAVE.  **HAD IT!”**

I slammed down the Omnitrix.  Four metal veins dug into my skin as the evolution feature kicked in.  I grew 8 feet taller and much much bulkier.  My already powerful muscles multiplied in strength.  My brown skin darkened into a green hide.  A blue shell hardened onto my back as my fingernails formed into sharp claws with metal forming around my knuckles.  I felt a ball form over the tip of my tail, completing the transformation.

            I roared as I slammed my fist into his chin, making him fly right through the metal walls of the HQ deep into the null void.  I ran towards the containment fields containing my friends.  I went to break the first one, but the Taranma returned through the hole he created, lifting me into the air, and slamming me on the floor, leaving a dent in the shape of me.  He grabbed my tail and swung me around, releasing me at the right moment to send me hurtling at the wall.

            I recovered quickly as he flew back at me.  He aimed a punch at my face but I quickly blocked it with my right arm.  My right hand shifted into a  four-barreled missile launcher.  I swiped at him to get some distance before shooting a barrage of missiles in his direction.

            I couldn’t help but notice a rush of adrenaline.  Not normal fighting adrenaline either.  I suddenly felt like a cornered animal fighting for its life.  _Shit, is this what Albedo warned me about?_ I stopped my attack and warped my hand back to normal, holding my head.

            “C’mon Jennifer, deep breathes.  Deep breathes.”

            I looked in front of me, but my surroundings became fuzzy.  I became scared.  But my reaction wasn’t flight, it was definitely fight.  An orange blur flew right me, and I immediately went for it.  I slammed my fist into it, but it grabbed my hand and flipped me on my back.  I stood up quickly, shooting non-stop missiles in its direction.  An orange light appeared, and I felt intense heat on my right side.

            “Argh!” I yelled out in pain.  Despite this, I ran towards it.  The direction of the pain, the source of the stream.  That’s where he is.  _C’mon, Jennifer, you can do this._

            I slammed my fist into where I believed the blur was.  I felt a tingle of electricity.  _Did I get him?_   I stood there quietly, but I could barely sit still.  I tried to focus but the adrenaline high kept fighting me.

            “…No…” I heard a voice.

            I looked over to see the orange blur hovering a few feet away.  Something distorted the image but I couldn’t tell what.

            “…friend…”

            “…Jen…”

            I couldn’t make out the voices around me.  All I knew was where the Taranma was at.  I roared as I ran towards it.  I slammed my fist into it, but that wasn’t all.  I did it again.  And again.  And again.  I pummeled this thing into the ground as if my life depended on it.

            **BOOM!**

            I flew straight up from the explosion beneath me, landing on my back.  I tried to calm myself, but I couldn’t.  I stood up, shrugging off the pain.  I saw a blur move next to me.  I morphed my hand into a missile launcher.

            “…Jen…stop…aah…”

            “Allison?!” I stopped and stood there.  I forced myself to sit still.  I forced my self to suppress my fighting instincts.   I morphed my hand back into a hand and I slammed the Omnitrix.

            I reverted back to base Humungousaur.  My head roaring with pain, but all my senses were coming back to me.  My vision became clear once more and I saw the destruction I’ve caused.  Allison was on the ground before me, a look of pure fear washed over he face.  _If I’d have gone through with that attack, she’d be dead._

            I looked around me.  The Taranma hovered a few feet off the ground.  He looked roughed up, but could probably still fight if he wanted to.  The entire room was trashed.  I saw my fist marks all over the place.  Some of the containment fields shattered, including the one Allison was in.  Servantis stood on his half-destroyed platform and glared on me.  The bald man watched with a blank expression.

            I reverted back to human before I ran towards Allison.  She took a few steps back away from me.

            “Allison, I’m sorry.  I didn’t…” I felt tears swell up in my eyes.

            “Y-You’re you, right?” she asked hesitantly.

            I nodded.  She slowly walked over to me before hugging me tightly.  “Oh my god, never do that again.” She said as she began crying on my shoulders.  I hugged her back.

            “Fortunately for you, I’m not going to allow that.” The Taranma stated as he gently landed behind me.  I turned to face him; Allison held my hand behind me.  “I have been demanding and blunt with you and that has gotten us nowhere.  Let me take the empathetic approach.  This destruction was all caused by you.  This girl almost died because of you.  I hope you can recognize the amount of power you possess.  Power which you are not fully capable of utilizing properly.  Please, hand over the Omnitrix.  In the right hands it can cause prosperity in place of destruction.”

            “Dude, I-uh…” I was truly at a lost for words.  His words were so genuine and there was even a touch of pain in his voice.  I’m having whiplash from the 180 this guy just pulled.  One second, uber powerful alien seemingly after the power of the watch, to caring Superman who wants to prevent more pain?  Wha…?  “Who _are_ you?”

            “We,” the bald man interrupted as he walked towards us, an annoyed looking Servantis following close behind, “Are simply two beings who have seen pain by the powerless from the powerful.  The oppressed ruled by the oppressors.  The abused defenseless against the abuser.  Jennifer Tennyson, my name is Fr’dum.  I am an Osmosian, like your friend back there.”

            “The friend you’ve oppressed in that containment field?” I asked, quizzically.

            “Oh, young lady, you don’t know what oppression is,” he replied.  This man was odd.  When Servantis spoke, it was of a sinister and conniving nature to it like that of a villain seeking for power.  When the Taranma spoke, he had a firm and demanding nature, like that of a soldier doing his duties.  But when Fr’dum spoke, it was like that of a heartbroken father.

            I studied him, baffled by this turn of events.  “And you believe I’m oppressing people?”

            “Oh dear me, no child,” he responded quickly.  “Your heroism has become legendary throughout the galaxy!  It would be silly to suggest that the once great Ben Tennyson, now brilliant Jen Tennyson, would do such atrocities with the power she has received.”

            “What?!” Servantis took a step back as if felt betrayed.  “You told me you believed he shouldn’t possess such power!”

            “ _She_ , Servantis, please.” Fr’dum corrected. _I’m liking this guy more and more every second._ “And I agree, she shouldn’t” he said turning back to me.  “But not because you’re a threat to the universe.  I believe you’re not reaching the full potential that your heroism could reach!”

            I glanced at Allison, who was now hugging me from behind.  “What do you want?” I asked.

            He smiled solemnly and took my right hand to hold it firmly but friendly.  “Jennifer, I wish to absorb the DNA from your Celestialsapien form.”

            I pulled my hand away and took a few steps back, “Woah!  I’m sorry, sir, but quite frankly you’re not the first Osmosian to be after Celestialsapien DNA.  Forgive me if I’m a tad hesitant to help you in this quest.”

            “You insolent-,” the Taranma threatened but Fr’dum raised his hand.

            “You-you-you don’t want Jennifer gone!  You never did!  You want to be the coming storm yourself, don’t you!” Servantis interrupted.  He opened his skull and electricity crackled inside.  The Taranma appeared before him and grabbed Servantis by the neck in return.  As Servantis choked, his electricity drained directly into the Taranma’s body until there was none left.  He dropped Servantis with a thud.  Once he caught his breath, Servantis scampered out of sight.

             “As I was saying,” Fr’dum chuckled amusingly, “The Osmosian you speak of, Aggregor, he sought after the Celestialsapien’s power for personal gain.  While I seek the power of the gods, my motives, I assure you, are far more righteous.  Jennifer, your Alien X form to provide this form yourself this body to live in.  While one may consider this selfish, I do not seek to judge.  I would probably do the same thing if I was in your position.  But is your wish the only one that deserves being grant?  With the power in that device, you could do so much good.  You can end starvation, bigotry, inequality!  You can give power to the powerless!  You can give freedom to those who are enslaved!  You can give life to those who barely have one!  The possibilities are endless, Jennifer!  Why waste it?”

            “I-“ I didn’t know what to say.  Logically, he’s correct.  With Alien X at my finger tips, the universe is at my full command.  At the time, changing my body was huge!  But that’s nothing compared to what this guy’s offering.

            “Do it, Jen!” Allison spoke up.

            “Allison!”

            “Jennifer, how can you _not_ agree to this? All the transphobia you face?  All the racism I’ve dealt with growing up?  If we can actually end it, why wouldn’t we?”

            “You’ve been hurt by inequality, child, haven’t you?  I can tell.” Fr’dum asked Allison solemnly.

            She nodded, “On my planet, well, in my country, I’m considered a minority because of the color of my skin.  Black people have been enslaved in my country’s past and we still suffer from the aftermath to this day.  Plus, I like girls.  Being black and gay is hard!”

            He nodded, “May I show you two something?” he held up to fingers and tiny red sparks flew from them and connected to our minds.  I was mentally transported to a planet.  Similar to Earth, but clearly not Earth.  It was definitely alien.  We were in a home.  It was dome shape.  In the center, a younger Fr’dum was in some sort of kitchen.  He placed some sort of meat in a pot of green liquid.  A teenage girl stood next to him.

            “[Father?]” the child spoke in an alien language, but I somehow knew everything she was saying even without the Omnitrix’s aid.  “[Can I tell you something?]”

            “[Anything, pumpkin!]”

            “[I-I have a crush on someone, and I don’t know if it’s okay].”

            Fr’dum laughed, “[Well of course it’s okay!  It’s perfectly natural at your age.  So, who’s the lucky young man?]”

            She sat there for a few moments, as if contemplating what to say.  “[Her name’s Sph’ic…?]” She said slowly.

            Fr’dum demeanor immediately shifted to that of shock as he stared at his daughter in disbelief.  His shock turned to anger.  “[No!  That’s-I-No!]” he yelled loudly at her.  “[You can’t love a girl!  I forbid it!  Not in my home!]” his daughter sobbed as she ran to what looked like a bed on the other side of the home.

            Before I could fully register what just occurred, the scene shift.  It was later in the day.  His daughter sat on the bed; her eyes red from her tears.  Fr’dum stood around the corner, staring at her with pain written all over his face.  He sighed and walked up to her.  He sat down next to her as she stared at the floor.  “[Ls’ban, I-]” he took a deep breathe.  “[I’m sorry.  I shouldn’t have yelled at you.  I-]” he grabbed her hand causing her to look him in the eye.  “[I love you with all my heart.  No matter who you love.  But, Ls’ban, you need to understand.  People here  _kill_ people like you.  I-I couldn’t _live_ with myself if anything happened to you.  You have to promise me you’ll _never_ tell anyone about your feelings.]”

            “[But father-]”

            “[ _Promise_ me!]”

            She sighed, “[I promise.]”

            “[Thank you.]” He let go of her hands.  His hands were visibly shaking with emotion.

            “[Father, are you okay?]”

            “[I’m just…I’m just scared, pumpkin]”

            The vision faded. I could tell Fr’dum was holding back tears.  Allison wasn’t, my sleeve was already her own personal handkerchief.  “That’s awful!” she replied.  “Is your daughter fine, now?” she asked hopefully.

            Fr’dum frowned.  “You don’t need to relive it, my friend.” The Taranma spoke gently, placing his hand on his shoulder.

            Fr’dum looked at us determined.  He raised his hand and we were brought into a third scene.  Ls’ban was in a group of teenagers walking home at night.  She pulled on another girl’s clothes and waved to separate from the group.  _Oh no.  I know where this is going._ I almost wish I could see Allison right now.

            Ls’ban whispered into the girl’s ear, but the girl recoiled in disgust.  “[What?!  You’re serious!  Oh my!]” the girl turned at the other teenagers.  She called Ls’ban a word that wasn’t translated, but I had a feeling I knew what it meant.  I watched in horror as Ls’ban backed away from the gang of Osmosians.  They repeated the word as they all attacked her.  She was stripped naked, kicked, and punched over and over again. One of the teenagers walked towards a nearby power generator and absorbed the electricity.  Sparks flew from his hand as he walked back to the group who were now holding her on the ground against her will. If this vision wasn’t being beamed directly into my brain, I’d look away.

            I then saw Fr’dum run out of his home, yelling at the teenagers.  They clearly weren’t listening.  One of the teenagers absorbed metal and ran at Fr’dum.  Fr’dum reached for a nearby post to absorb but the teenager was too quick for him.  His screams echoed in my ear as he witnessed the brutal murder of his daughter.

            “STOP!  STOP!”  Allison yelled, breaking the connection.  I hugged her as she sobbed uncontrollably into my shoulder.

            Fr’dum took a step back, I could see tears streaming down his face despite his best efforts to keep his composure.  “Do you see now, Jennifer, why this matter is so important to me?  I want to live in a world where that never happens again!  Where people can live as they who are!  Regardless of race, gender, or love.”

            “Please, Jen!  C’mon!  How can you say no to that?” Allison asked.

            I sat there for a solid minute mulling it over in my head.  There was one problem that I just couldn’t think past.  One question that needed answered: “How will you accomplish this?”

            “By absorbing the DNA from your Alien X form, of course” he replied.

            “No, specifically.”

            “I don’t understand?”

            “Racism, homophobia, these are abstract concepts.  More difficult to eliminate fully.  Destroying and recreating a universe is easier than killing an idea. One is tangible, the other isn't. So tell me, how are you planning on doing this?"

            He smiled and sighed.  “Why child, the only way we can!  By eliminating those belonging to an oppressive class!”


	18. New beginnings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our story comes to a close. Everyone escapes the Null Void unharmed, Jen and Allison are girlfriends, and oh my god they're roommates! However, this ending doesn't sit easy with Kevin. And what exactly did happen to our villains?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kevin's parts were hard for me to write. I didn't want him to come off as a "Anti-SJW rekt feminists" kinda guy (you know exactly the type of guy I'm talking about). I also didn't want to make him seem out of character. Straight white dudes get a lot of deserved crap, but some of them are pretty cool and I tried to write this from that perspective. I hope it came out well? Idk, lemme know how you guys feel.

             “Eliminate the oppressive class?” I repeated to myself, “What do you mean by that?”

            “Who are the oppressed and oppressive classes changes from planet to planet and region to region.” He explained, “On your planet, in your country, you both would be liberated by my plans for the universe!  For you, Allison, liberation from those who oppress you for the color of your skin.  And for you, Jennifer, from those who degrade you for the body you wish to live in.  And for you both, the love you share with each other will be celebrated and not destroyed.”

            Allison pulled away from my soaked shoulder and slid her hand down my arm to my hand.  We locked fingers, I could feel her shivering and her breathe was shaky,

            “You’re calling for a universal genocide,” I said bluntly.

            “That…is not what I would call it.”

            “Then what?  Eugenics?  Mass murder?  Cosmic destruction?  You’d kill millions!”

            “To save billions!  Billions like you!  Billions like her!  Billions like my daughter.” He said the last one with pain in his voice.  “These people.  In your world, the white people, the straight people, the males; they have ruled and dictated the ways of your world for far too long.  By eliminating them, the holes left in their place would be filled with those who deserved the power all along.  Those who feel compassion.  Those who knows what it’s like to be oppressed.”

            “I’m white,” I pointed out, “would I be saved or killed?”

            “You’re a transgender female,” he answered matter of factly, “This status alone would protect you.”

            “How about my grandfather?  And my best friend, Kevin?” I asked defensively.  Fr’dum remained silent.  “So what, they have to die because some shitty people who look like them did terrible things?”

            “Wars are won through many battles,” the Taranma replied in Fr’dum’s silence.  “I know more than anyone that sacrifice is a necessity for the greater good.”

            “This won’t solve ANYTHING!” I yelled.  They both looked at me with a stern look, “Being treated differently for the circumstances of your birth hurts, I know this from experience.  If I could snap my fingers and end things like racism or transphobia, I would.”  Fr’dum looked at me hopefully, “But these things can’t be solved through reality warping.  Killing all the straight white men won’t erase these concepts.  Racist white women would be saved on the account that they’re women.  Racist gay men would be saved on the basis that they’re gay.  Hell, transphobic trans people exist!  Even if you were to focus on one problem instead of multiple, how are you going to end transphobia when trans people are transphobic?  Eliminating all cis people wouldn’t solve that!”

            “Jennifer-“ Fr’dum tried to argue.

            “I’m sorry, Fr’dum, but even if I was supportive of this plan (which, may I remind you, is literal genocide), it won’t work.  These matters are too complicated for Alien X to solve.  I’m sorry, but I’m not giving you that type of power and that’s final.”

            “You dare criticize our use of power when you couldn’t the power of your ultimate Vaxasarian transformation?!” the Taranma yelled angrily.

            “Hey, that usually doesn’t happen!” I yelled in defense.

            “Fr’dum, it is obvious that rationalizing with these children has proven fruitless, may I use direct force?” He asked eagerly.

            “I’m sorry Jen,” Fr’dum spoke with genuine disappointment in his voice, “but this matter is far too important to be denied.  I hope you understand.”

            Before I could even react, the Tranma grabbed my left arm and yanked me off the ground.  Allison fell on the ground from the unexpected movement. “Jen!  No!” she yelled.

            “I wish I could say this will be quick and painless,” The Taranma spoke to me.  “But likely, it will be neither.”

            “What are you-?” He held me 10 feet off the ground by my arm.  My shoulder ached from being pulled so fast and supporting all my weight.  I struggled beneath him but I wasn’t strong enough to pull myself up.  I watched as he grabbed the Omnitrix and attempted to pull it off my wrist.  I screamed from the intense pain of it peeling off my skin.  The Omnitrix is fused to my biology to the point where removing it without the proper procedures would be the equivalent of pulling someone’s finger off.  The Omnitrix turned yellow and a green energy field glowed around the watch.  Sparks flew all over from the device.  The energy field grew larger and larger the more he pulled it off before…

            **BOOM!**

            The Omnitrix sent an omnidirectional energy pulse that shot both of us to opposite sides of the room.  I slammed into the metal walls onto to fall back down on the metal ground.  my back felt bruised and my knees hurt like crazy.  I noticed a minor cut on my side.  Otherwise, just a little roughed up.  Been through worse.

            I looked at the Omnitrix.  It kept sparking and glowed yellow for a few seconds before it finally relaxed.  <New life form DNA analyzed.  Acquisition complete!>

            “Wait did I just?  I did!” I awkwardly stood up despite the pain.  “Let’s see how you like a taste of your own medicine!”

            I slammed down the core and my skin turned black instantly.  The black climbed up my arm and enveloped my entire body.  My hair separated into two strands that swirled around themselves into two long chord-like antennae that ended in an electrical plug.  They were thicker at the base and thinner by the ends, vaguely resembling pig tails.  The tips of my fingers grew metallic and bolt-like.  A tail sprouted behind me ending in yet another plug.  Little yellow bolts sprouted over my arms, hips, and legs.

            I opened my singular eye and looked at my hands, “Ah!  Feedback?”

            The Taranma stood up, rubbing his bruised head.  I looked over at Allison and Fr’dum.  Fr’dum held his arm out to his side with Allison behind it, suggesting she doesn’t run after me.  Probably a good call as the Taranma flew right at me and pinned me against the wall.

            “Become Alien X, child.  He is your only alien with the strength to defeat me.” He warned.

            “Not if I get creative, he’s not!” I slammed the tips of my antennae into his shoulders and took a big gulp of energy from his body.

            “Aaah!” he yelled and tossed me aside.  He hugged himself while rubbing the spots my antennae hit.

            “Told ya about that painful feedback!” I bantered.

            “Why does that hurt?” He demanded.

            “Dude, you’re basically a giant walking battery.  I’m like a leech and you’re an all you can eat buffet!” I proved my point by raising my hands out and sucking another dose of energy from him.  He fell to his knees and yelled in pain.

            Next thing I knew, he flew right at me, grabbed my throat, and threw me across the room.  I crashed into the control panels on the platform.  I stood up as he flew above me.

            “You may absorb my power, but I’m still physically superior and much faster,” he boasts.  “Give up now before I’m forced to peel the Omnitrix off a dead girl’s body.”

            “Get any closer, and I promise you I’ll drain you clean!” I warned.  “I’ve held the big bang once, I’m sure a small fry like you wouldn’t be too much energy for me to handle.”

            “Perhaps,” he responded before looking at the containment pods.  “But I’m sure I’m too much for even your Osmosian friend here.”  He raised a finger at them and shot a blast of energy.

            “No!!” I shot my hand out and sucked his blast right into me and I noticed the energy fields react to my powers briefly.  It was as if they were briefly drawn to me before I relaxed my powers.  _Well duh, Jen, they’re ENERGY fields._ “Wait…Dead in the water.” I repeated what I said earlier with Blukic and Driba.  (Speaking of which, I forgot all about them.  They’re still laying on the ground despite all the commotion that has occurred).

            I held my hands, antennae, and tail in different directions before I began draining my surroundings of their energy.  The lights flickered, the energy fields dampened, the control panels stopped making noise behind me.  Fr’dum ran towards me, Allison close in tow.

            “What are you doing?” he demanded.

            “A few little birdies told me you were on your last supply of energy.  Figured ya’ll didn’t need all that _power_ , now, did ya?”

            “Stop!  Stop!!” The Taranma tackled me to the ground, I felt a few ribs crack from the impact.

            “Aaaah!  Now I know how Charmcaster feels!” I jammed my fingers into his skin and absorbed as much energy as I could.  I felt his strength fading as he screamed in my face.  I stopped when I drained so much energy, he fell unconscious, falling on top of me.  My ribs screamed in pain under his weight and I couldn’t force him off.  “Ah, sorry about this buddy but…” I sneaked my antennae under his belly and practically squeezed the energy out like toothpaste.  He flew a few feet above me before falling next to me.  I stood up, trying to ignore the pain in my chest.

            “Jen!” I heard Kevin’s voice.  I looked over at the containment pods.  The energy fields have lightened from my powers.

            “Kevin!  Guys, hang on”  I ran over to them before being pulled off the ground by mysterious force.  “Woah, wha?”

            I looked over to see Fr’dum with glowing blue eyes, “You will not deny yourself my liberation!”

            “Jeeze, a white guy telling a girl what she wants.  How progressive!” I aimed my antennae at him and shot a beam of energy.  He greeted me with a red beam from his eyes that met mine.  Unfortunately for him, mine was stronger.  Perhaps too strong.  Once he realized he wasn’t going to win, he moved out of the way causing my beam to go straight through the floor.  No longer under whatever telekinetic energy he used on me, I landed on the ground which only exasperated my broken rib.  I’m not sure how deep my beam went, but I felt the HQ groan and shake as it started tearing apart.

            “Jen, hurry!” Gwen yelled.

            “Yeah yeah.” I absorbed the remains of the energy field.  Rook grabbed the two Galvans before we ran over to a wall that I blasted apart with the remains of the energy I absorbed.

            “How did you get to us?” Max asked urgently.

            “I used Jetray, but I can’t fly all of you.  Especially with a broken rib” I replied, still holding my side.

            “You didn’t think about how you’d get us home _after_ saving us?” Kevin criticized.

            “Jennifer!  Please, think about this!  Don’t squander this opportunity!” Fr’dum begged behind me, holding a barely conscious Taranma over his shoulder.

            I reverted back to human, “Ok, this may be a long shot, but I have an idea.”

            “Well hurry up already!” Kevin yelled.

            I dialed through the Omnitrix before I found the alien I wanted.  My skin turned hard as rocks formed my hide.  Tiny mountains rose from my skin and I grew much larger.  My belly swirled into a spherical core as I became a living planet as Gravattack.

            “Ok guys, get ready for a bumpy ride!” I curled my arms and legs in so I became planet shaped.  My gravitational orbit developed around me, lifting everyone up in the air.  I flew out of the hole with everyone swirling around me.

            “Woah!  Butterflies!”  Allison complained, holding her belly.

            “Here, maybe this’ll help!”

            I increased her gravity slightly so instead of floating around me she sat comfortable on my rocky ground.

            “Thanks!” she replied.

            “Hey, hero, mind giving the rest of us some ground?” Kev yelled from somewhere south.

            “Sorry, not enough land.  Maybe once we get back to Earth,” I teased.

            “Oh hardy har har!”

            As Jetray, I can fly faster then the speed of light.  With Driba and Blukic, I averaged around 200 mph on our flight over to the HQ.  Under Gravattack, we averaged around 70 miles per hour at tops speed.  As you can imagine, it took a little while before we made it to the Null Void portal that Max had to open by calling Plumbers HQ.

            Just in time too!  My Omnitrix _just_ lost power as we entered the HQ, resulting in a rough landing for everyone.  Everyone except for Allison, who landed on me since she was on top of Gravattack.  However, may I remind everyone that Gravattack is a living planet and therefore has no broken ribs he has to worry about.  Jen, on the other hand, does.

             I was brought over the Plumber’s medical wing to treat my ribs.  Now that my adrenaline rush from fighting has settled down, my chest hurt like crazy.  Every breath caused some pain in my chest.   Luckily, my broken ribs didn’t puncture anything despite the harsh blow.  And thanks to alien medication, they’ll heal three times faster then the typical broken ribs.  Unfortunately, that’s still two weeks of no physical activities allowed.

            Allison hung out with me while the others worked on Plumber’s business.  Paperwork, updating prisoner files, etc.  She sat at the end of the bed while one of the Plumbers treated my wounds.  I’m not even sure what species he was but I liked to call him Hammerhead since his face reminded me of a hammerhead shark.  Although, I never said the nickname out loud.  The alien eventually left the room to retrieve medical paperwork, leaving us alone.

            “So, tonight’s been a crazy night,” she tried to break the tension.

            “Relative to you, maybe.” I joked, “Relative to me?  Typical Monday!”

            “It’s Wednesday,” she corrected.

            I just chuckled.  We sat in silence for a second before she spoke again, “So I called Courtney once we got out of that dimension thing.”

            “It’s called the Null Void, but go on?”

            “She’s dropping out.  Her parents don’t want her attending the same school as you.”

            “Oh, I’m sorry,” I couldn’t help but feel slightly offended at that remark.

            “Well, you shouldn’t be,” she smiled.  “You’re still transferring over to the girl’s dorms, right?  I wanted to know if you’d be my roommate?”

            “Really?  Of course I would!” I said excitedly, only wincing from my chest pain.

            “Also, can I be honest with you?” she asked.

            “Of course,” I looked at her concerned.

            Allison looked over at the door to make sure it was closed before turning to me and smiling.  She jumped of the bed and walked over to my ear and whispered: “I want you to be my girlfriend.”

            “Wait, really?” I smiled, she nodded.  “Haha, the hero gets the girl at the end.  Isn’t that kinda sexist?” I joked.

            “We’re gay, it doesn’t count,” she held me by my chin and kissed me on the lips.  Of course, I kissed back.

            “Am I interrupting something?” Hammerhead asked, appearing behind us out of nowhere.  We both pulled away from each other embarrassed.

 

[] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] []

 

            A few days later, I was in Allison’s dorm after finally moving in.  All the paperwork has been complete, the administration approved of the new dorm placement, and Courtney left us on good terms.  Neither of our parents where thrilled with us being roommates and girlfriends at the same time but they didn’t exactly put up a strong resistance either.

            The funny thing is we had to call Kevin over to help with the move in.  The university strictly banned Omnitrix use on campus outside self defense and defense of others, meaning I was useless with my broken ribs.  He was surprisingly supportive of us living together, even if it is just college roommates.  But he did tease me non-stop over it and made a couple lewd jokes our way.

            “Talk about U-Haul Lesbians am I right?” he joked.

            “Dude, we’re college roommates.  It’s not like we’re renting an apartment in LA!”

            “Yet!” Allison added from her desk, back turned towards as she arranged her surroundings in the most productive way possible.

            “Well, this is gonna last you all year.  What if you two have couple issues?  Or break up?”

            “Dude, quit being a buzz kill.” I responded.

            “Yeah, Kev.  It’s almost like you want us to break up,” Allison said walking over to us and plant a kiss on my cheek.

            “Not at all!” He raised his hands up in defense.  Allison muttered something to herself as she opened one of her dresser drawers and rummaged through it.  Kevin glanced at his watch-less wrist.  “Well look at the time!  Hey, Jen, wanna see me out?” He already started making his way out the door.

            “Uh, sure?  I’ll be back in a sec, Allison!” I replied.

            “Don’t be too long,” she spoke in a sing-song voice.  I glanced over to see a…um…phallic item peeping over the top of her drawer.  My eyes widened before I smiled and made a thumbs up.

            I ran out of the room to follow Kevin out.  He was waiting impatiently at the top of the stairs but didn’t bother waiting much linger when he saw me approaching.  I caught up to him easy enough though.

             “Seriously, dude?”  I joked “Can’t spend a few hours with a lesbian couple without getting antsy?”

            “Wha…?”  I raised an eyebrow, “Woah, okay, dude, that’s not why I’m in a rush!”

            “Then why-?”  
            “I have to ask,” he sounded serious, which really got my attention.  “Did that Osmosian ever touch the Omnitrix?”

            “What?  No, why?”

            “Why?!  Isn’t it obvious?  That guy scares me.”

            “Fr’dum?!” I looked at him shocked.  “Fr’dum scares Kevin Levin?”

            “Dude, he’s crazy!” He yelled as we walked out of the dorm complex.  “Aggregor just wanted power to rule people.  He straight up wants to kill me!”

            “Well, not you specifically,” I replied.

            “Me, your grandfather, lots of our friends and family.  But it’s not just that that scares me.”

            “Then what is?”

            “The politics behind the whole deal.”

            “What do you mean?” I squinted at him.

            “Woah!  Woah!  Relax!  Gwen made me read enough feminist literature for me to realize how privileged I am, but-“

            “Wait, you read feminist literature?”

            Kevin blushed, “Gwen makes me read it.  Why?!”

            “Nothing, just cool edgy Kevin Levin’s a feminist?  Haha, figured you’d be too macho to admit that.”

            “ANYWAYS!” He interrupted, “My point is, he’s got a point.  I’m not denying that people like me make things shitty for people like you or Allison.  But, not all guys are like that.”

            “Heh, hashtag not all…”

            “Ok, dude!” he interrupted.  “I get it, saying that ignores the problems in society instead of confronting them.  But, is it fair to kill good guys like me just because sickos exist?  And yeah, I had a rough childhood.  But I bounced back!  I improved!  I’ve gone a long way!  Do people not deserve a second chance?  And how about guys who use their power to help people??

            “This really is bugging you, isn’t it?”

            “Hey, you lived the first 20 years of your life a straight, white guy.  Just because you’ve transitioned, doesn’t erase your past.  How would you feel if this happened when we were teenagers?”

            “Ok, that was uncalled for!” I yelled upset.  “I was never-“

            “No!  You listen!” He snapped back.  “I get it!  I-ugh!  Or, at least I’m trying to!  I really am!  But, I don’t know.  I’m just scared.”  He paused to take a deep breath.  Once we reached his car, he leaned on the side and looked up to the sky.  “I don’t know how to handle things.  I feel like a lot of people in this world is just starting to get a voice they never had before.  And if you ask me, that’s a good thing.  And people are fighting back against their oppression and getting angry at who they perceive as the oppressor.  That’s also a good thing, or at least an understandable thing.  But, when I hear ‘straight, white guy’ out of someone’s mouth, usually it has a negative connotation.  And, part of me resents it because I never did anything wrong.  Part of me wants to argue against it.  I feel attacked, and unnecessarily.  Despite this, I recognize where the anger is coming from and logically, I know it would benefit me to fight for them rather than against them.”

            He looked me in the eyes, “but this Fr’dum guys, this is more than that.  He wants me dead.  For something I can’t control.  Because a couple hundred douchebags exist.  And these douchebags, they add leverage to his side.  If more and more people hear about this guy, would the thought of genocide be enough to deter them?  Or, is the damage to great?  Have the racial, gender, whatever divides that exist…have these things gotten so big that there’s no redemption?”

            I walked over next to him and leaned on his car.  I reached behind my neck and pulled my hair in front of me, running my hands through it absent minded.

            “What do you think?” He asked.  “Do you agree with him?”

            “I see where he’s coming from,” I replied.  “I see the pain in his heart.  A pain I share.  A pain Allison shares.  But, there’s too many holes in his plan to work.  These hateful concepts aren’t going to disappear because a certain group of people goes away.  These concepts will only get away if more and more people were…well, like you.  Genocide is far from the answer, dude.”

            He smiled, “Thanks…c’mere!”  He reached his arm around my neck and gave me a noogie, messing up my hair in the process.  I giggled and slipped out of his arm.  “Best friends?” he held his fist up.

            “Best friends,” I replied by bumping it with mine.

            It didn’t take me long before I got back into my dorm.  I would say more then that, but I think I’d prefer to keep some privacy.  Let’s just say, it was gay as fuck.


	19. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Think of this as the end credit scene of a Marvel movie. Very short but hopefully it gives just enough information to hype up the next book.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally! I have completed the first book of this series! I feel quite proud of myself.
> 
> Just as an FYI, unless this series gets SUPER popular, I'm only planning out a trilogy of books here. Don't think this is going to be much longer then that. I'm currently working on the second book. This story is partially inspired by Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. I won't give out the official title of the book until I complete the outline for the story, but when I decide on a title I will announce it on Tumblr. Check me out at the-cosmic-goddess.tumblr.com!
> 
> Also, feedback would be appreciated! Did you enjoy the book? I would love to here your thoughts below! :D

            “My friend?  Friend?  Are you well?” Fr’dum spoke worryingly.

            The Taranma finally opened his eyes.  He stood up but felt weak.  Attached to him where several wires connected to some sort of generator.  “What happened?”

            “Jennifer Tennyson denied our liberation,” Fr’dum spoke.  He sounded hurt, like a betrayed friend.

            “I see,” the Taranma spoke.  He stood up and placed his hand on the generator.  The generator instantly turned off upon his touch as all the energy drained into his body.  “This isn’t enough.  Where are we?”

            “The Rooters HQ was destroyed in the battle.  We are currently among the peaceful inhabitants of the Null Void.”

            The Taranma walked out of the hut they were in, Fr’dum following close behind.  The Taranma kept walking until he reached a cliff and peered into the Null Void.   He looked down at his wrist which possessed a little bracelet, the only article of clothing on his body.  On the bracelet was a locket that he opened, revealing another Taranma.  This Taranma was a blue girl much younger then our Taranma. Her only article of clothing was a collar that had a tag on it with somebody’s name.  The name read: Demone.  The Taranma stroked the picture fondly before closing the locket back and turning to Fr’dum.

            “You know I will stop at nothing to achieve your dream, Fr’dum.”

            “I do, my friend,” he replied, placing his hand on the Taranma’s shoulder.

            The Taranma turned to Fr’dum, “We will avenge those who payed with their lives for the world that did not deserve them.”

            “I do not seek revenge,” Fr’dum scolded.  “You know this.”

            “You still wish to create a world worthy of your daughter’s life when she returns, do you now?”

            “I do, my friend.”

            “Then tell me, what’s our next course of action?  The Jennifer girl proved too unpredictable.  I’ve never encountered her Feedback alien before and had no defenses against it.  Such a feeble alien defeated one such as myself?  Humiliating.”

            “Her Feedback is part of a race of aliens called the Opticoid,” Fr’dum informed him.  “My friend, you are faster than that of light and strong enough to destroy a planet if you so choose.  However, your strength comes from a massive digestion of raw energy.  Any creature with the ability to absorb energy can indeed kill you.  All that strength and yet you’re not without your kryptonite.”

            “So I should go after her again?  This time, I will be wary of this Feedback!”

            “No!  That would prove futile.  I did not form a plan B for no reason!”

            “Yes,” the Taranma looked at him quizzically.  “Said plan you have chose not to share with me.”

            Fr’dum smiled.  He looked behind him to make sure they weren’t being watched.  He reached into his cloak and pulled out two items, both gold and looked similar in shape to each other.

            “No!” The Taranma shoved the two items back into Fr’dum’s cloak.  He leaned close so he could whisper as quietly as possible, “why did you not tell me you possessed two pieces of the map of infinity?  And why would you carry such valuable items around with you?  And why, may I ask, was this not plan A if you’re half way towards the Forge of Creation?”

            “Do you trust me?” Fr’dum asked, holding his hand out.

            The Taranma sighed, “As always.” He shook his hands.

            “We have a quest, my friend.  A quest for liberation!  A quest for power!  And, a quest for infinity.  We will be heroes!”


End file.
